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Life of a Snowflake

As I was returning from my class, which is a stress-free time for me, I began to notice my surroundings. It was a typical winter day in Chicago. temperatures of 27F, heavily overcast so much so that it seemed to create a haze like halo, moderate winds, hunched students rushing to or from their classes and snow of about half a foot deep. It had snowed during the night and there was fresh snow covering all that my eyes encountered. There was a pristine quality to everything. In the immediate vicinity of the university, paths had been cleared and snow was pushed on both sides to create small dam like structures. It occurred to me, as i observed this, that this vastness, this encompassing white mass was actually made of tiny little flakes. Each flake a beautiful, complete form in itself. But when you look at it on the ground you forget that it came down individually, it merges so well that it creates another reality, a reality so persuasive that we forget its former form. Life of a snowflake in relative terms is so brief, the minute it comes in contact with another form it transforms. We seldom notice it when it is falling or in that brief moment when it is lying on our jackets, coats, ends of our mufflers or woolen gloves, we only notice it when it creates that pristine ambiance, when it settles down.



How long is our life in relative terms? No matter how long and beautiful we may live, its when we attach ourselves to an idea that we live in real terms-we live on!

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