Ruminations On the Possible Benefits of Global Warming

I vaguely recall the days of yore, when cheerfully I'd bound outdoors,
Shunning games and TV and all inside, in favor of cartwheels and clover chains. I'd
run and jump and play pretend,
relishing long summer days that ought never to end.
Indeed it's true that as a child, I always preferred my weather mild.
Running barefoot through the verdant grass, I imagined what would come to pass:

"I'll travel the world! Explore all around.
But for college, I'll be southern-bound.
Oh yes, I'm going where it's warm, you'll see!
No more frosty, bitter cold for me."

Well, dreams change, and for whatever reason,
I decided there were worse things than a long wintry season.
I packed coats and blankets, and traveled up, not down,
to my new home in New England.
Rhode Island.
Brown.

Four years, or a lifetime, later,
I declared myself a Winter Hater.
I'd spent some months living in African heat, which honestly was no small feat:
the sun was brutal; it burned even me.
And yet, that's where I'd prefer to be.
So while I decried the lack of springtime-y warm,
burrowing into sweatshirts in my Rhode Island dorm,
I painstakingly filled out form
after endless application form.
Where would life take me next-- to Florida? south Cali?
to deserts in Africa, or an urban D.C. rally?

Unfortunately, I realized, those childhood dreams
just weren't meant to be,
it seems.
Minimizing winter, although a feasible goal,
didn't maximize utility. It left me longing for that ole
northern education that boasted top schools,
progressive research,
with all their well-established tools.
So, despite dreaming of beaches and summer,
my heart fell for the Snowbelt.

What a bummer.

Having made my choice, I traveled away;
from New England, I traveled across lake and bay,
northward across hill and harbor,
northward, all the way to UM, Ann Arbor.

Because, why, Rhode Island wasn't cold enough?
Was I trying to prove to all that, yes, I am tough?
My breath appearing in a frosty puff,
myself armed with hat and gloves and stuff,
all layered and lined in downy fluff--
haha! I scoff at those who think such weather's rough.

Seriously, anyone can survive six months of ice and snow
and sub-zero temperatures when you still have to go
outside to class three times a day.
Really?
What Michiganian wouldn't want to stay?

But looking at the map, I sigh in resignation with the realization that any vacation
especially should I choose to venture forth to our Canadian neighbor to the north--
from Ann Arbor there is no choice but to drive
south.

Man alive.

What, oh what, have I done?
Even Canada's south... is winter that much fun?

And lastly, lest you believe erroneously that spring and summer are experienced equally,
to avoid confusion on the climate I'm preparing to enter--
rest assured, academics are measured only
in terms of Fall
and Winter.