Summer.

I’m buoyant and bright; there is a natural glow upon my face from the sunshine and pure happiness. The sun streaks my hair gold; it hand-paints a shimmer in the usually lifeless dirty-blonde color. The sun sprinkles freckles upon my nose and lends me some of its shine, so I don’t apply any makeup to my face in the summer months. Why would I use makeup when I have the sun?

In the summer, I take back the life that winter stole from me in the prior months.

In the summer, I eat ice cream for dinner because I can.

In the summer, I laugh, and I smile, and I live.

Fall.

My color changes with the leaves.  

My sun-streaked hair turns as dead as the crumpled, dry leaves scattering the ground. The pink in my cheeks and glow upon my face slowly fade; the life in my eyes gets sucked away with each gust of crisp wind.

I fade in the fall.

The easygoing energy I once had in the summer shifts to exhaustion. My smile shrinks while the bags under my eyes grow. The gloomy gray colors of fall surround me; I get overwhelmed easily because the sun isn’t around as much. The dismal days of fall seem to last forever, and each day pieces of me fall with the leaves.

I fade in the fall, but I break in the winter.

Winter.

The sun disappears.

I’m surrounded by darkness.

Without the sun, it gets hard to live. The daylight dwindles every day along with my very small amount of energy that fall left me with.

It’s easy to feel lonely without the sun.

It’s easy to feel lifeless when there’s no life outside of your home. 

The trees are bare, the animals are in hibernation, and the world is silent.

Sleep is all I crave; I wish to sleep away each dark day until I can get to spring.

Spring.

Spring is the sigh of relief that I’ve been waiting for since winter began.

Spring is the first breath of fresh air after being released from the gloomy gray hug of fall and winter.

Spring is new. I am new because of it.

With each bloom of the fresh flowers, I regain pieces of me that fall and winter stole.

My rose cheeks flush, and my sunflower smile grows.

Spring returns the life in me that fall and winter locked away. I want to keep the life that fall and winter so selfishly steal.

With each turn of the seasons, I change, too.

Or maybe the seasons change me.