Jimmy Nguyen ‘25
Soft, slushy, snow. Snow is like a once in a lifetime experience in Seattle. It snows once every blue moon; that is how rare it is, sort of like a random Pokémon card that you unwrapped, trashing it away, not realizing that it was an extremely rare card that cost a pretty penny.
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The cold nights sipping hot cocoa, a heavy weight filled with boredom dropping on the computer mouse repeating over and over and over until the show “Snowdrop” caught my eye. I dropped into the first episode and realized that I might’ve dropped too far down when I became disinterested immediately after the first episode.
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Snow. I remember the feeling in the winter of 7th grade seeing the shiny, sparkly, almost ethereal droplets of white balls and the occasional snowflake, before any people dropped like snowflakes due to COVID-19. The COVID-19 virus affected everyone no matter what. Family members departing, social events decreasing, school interrupted. This was truly the worst. As I reflect on this moment, was the snow a gift to Seattle before COVID-19 spread throughout the whole city?
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In Bruges. Two hitmen, Ray and Ken, fled to Bruges, Belgium after a hit mission on a priest was successful but accidentally killed a little child in the process as well. Ray was the one that shot. The boss (we’ll call him Harry) wasn’t too happy about it, because it broke his code on not harming any children. Harry wanted Ray in Bruges during Christmas time to have a happy moment before his inevitable demise, dropped by the crew of hitmen. Through the final moments of the movie, it cuts to a scene. Bang, bang: Harry chases Ray while Ray stumbles to get away; it was snowing, a contrast between the hot, steaming blood and deep exhalation of each breath Ray took, to ultimately having Ray being shot in the back several times.
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This is all over the place, I thought; as I looked out to the road and saw solid, hard and compact snow brushed up to each side of the roadway, I realized that maybe I didn’t want snow and that I was entranced by the magical idea of snow. It proved to me that it is merely a nuisance to everyday life; when the roads get icy and mushy, it forces us to stay in quarantine against the world. I’m realizing that it was uncommon in Seattle, for sure, but is it a pretty penny, or just a regular nickel?