Getting dark at 5:00, is stupid.

Not getting light for your commute to work, is stupid.

Sunlight only being out for 9 hours a day, stupid.

But, I’m here to let you know, the ride is over. We’ve made it! We have reached December 21st, we did it! Some of you might ask, why is December 21st, so important?

You thought all those days in November were short. Today is the shortest day of the year. Talking brightness, people. And, this goes back to my rollercoaster analogy: we’re at the bottom of the roller coaster and we’re about to head back up.

When you ride a coaster (that’s what veteran coaster riders call a roller coaster) you have a lot of ups and downs (elevator joke) some parts of the ride are more fun than others. Same thing goes for each year of the calendar.

Today is the absolute bottom of the ride. We made it, we’re taking our seat belts off, we’re talking about how fun the ride was or how shitty. Some people don’t want to ride it again, and some people run to the back of the line to try it all over.

Life is a rollercoaster and daylight is the ups and down of it. After today, days start to get longer. The Sun starts to rise a little earlier and it starts to set a little later each day. It’s equivalent to riding up the massive incline at the beginning of the roller coaster. It’s slow, but you are excited to reach the top. It’s not the best part of the ride but you know fun times are on the horizon. Let’s call that January and February. Most people move out of state for that part of the ride and that’s cheating.

Then, you are almost at the peak of the coaster. You know it’s about to go down but you are not there yet. You can feel it. That’s March, April and May. Daylight is getting longer, weather is getting warmer, the coaster is about to get fun.

You finally hit the top of the roller coaster and it’s full steam ahead. Going full speed, doing flips and circles, ups and downs. You see the “smile and wave” camera and people are flicking the camera off, laughing, waving. Some people might get wild and flash the camera for shits and gigs. You have no care in the world because it’s the best part of the roller coaster. That’s June, July, August, September.

You finally reach the bottom, but you still have some fun twist and turns. The heart of the roller coaster is over. You have a satisfied feeling, you made it. It’s a nice easy ride to the finish line, you still have some fun left, but you know the end is coming. That is October and November. The days are starting to get really short. You wish you were back in July, doing flips and making weird faces at the camera.

Then, you reach the end. You want to ride it again. You run to the back of the line and do it again. That’s December 21st. Let’s run it back. We made it though the worst time of the year and arguable the worst year of all time. Daylight is coming! Summer is coming! Warm weather is coming. We just have to wait in line for a little bit and get to the top of the rollercoaster!