It was never my favorite color; it still isn’t. It’s too bright and eye-catching, but I associate it with some of my favorite memories.
I’ve been wearing a neon green ski helmet for ski racing since my freshman year. I hate it. I hate the hard ears that make putting it on a workout. I hate the button that doesn’t always work to attach my goggles. I hate the color that makes me stick out. I hate that it’s not quite the same neon green as my racing suit from last year or the one from the year before.
I love my neon green memories.
Neon green is the color of ski practice. It’s the feeling of cold wind biting my face and steep hills propelling me forward. It’s constant improvement. Neon green whispers in my ear to go faster and turn harder and get better but echoes the sounds of the chairlift above me and the craving sounds from the lanes around me.
Neon green is the color of room 521 at Copper Mountain. It screams of queso and birthday ice cream. I think of laughter and orange peels as the color screams. Neon green smells of DoorDashed hair dye in a cramped bathroom. It’s the color of sweatshirts, bathing suits, snow pants, and pole guards. Neon green is the memory of girls I came to know in only a week, and I miss them year-round. My ski helmet calls to me through the vents from my basement with names and faces that I yearn to see again.
Neon green is the color of a summer spent at a golf course. It tells stories of Thursdays, spending hours washing golf carts. It frightens me with its constant reminders of tournament shifts: being at the course at 6:30 a.m., drying carts covered in morning dew, loading bags from car to cart, and leaving early. It’s the color of living at the course between working, coaching, and practicing. Neon green is the color of fighting over who has to collect cans or trash from the unsorted bins around the course. My neon green work shirt reaches out to me a year later between the rainbow of golf shirts in the front of my closet.
Neon green is the color that clashes with my carnation pink neck gaiter. It’s bright and unyielding. It’s loud and unsettling.
Neon green is a color I hate, but full of things I can’t help but love.
