Here I am, the very first raindrop to fall from my mother cloud. For the first few moments, I felt scared and alone. But soon, I saw that my thousands of brothers and sisters were tumbling from the sky in great exhilaration. In all the excitement, we all began screaming and laughing contagious giggles. But suddenly, something strange happened, a chill ran down my spine, and my body stood still for a moment. I didn’t understand what was going on and neither did the others as they stopped laughing to stare at what was happening to me. With the speed of a bullwhip, my liquid form froze into a matchless crystalline form and I became a snowflake.

Having realized this, I continued laughing and soon as all of my siblings had transformed into their own unique icy patterns, we braced ourselves for our coming future. We were snowflakes and each one of us had dreams of landing on earth safely, gently, and still frozen. All of us hoped with all of our hearts to land on a nice rooftop, or a peaceful forest, or just about any place free of human touch. The horrid tales of pollution had scared us all out of our minds, although we all knew that we weren’t as pure as we were when we started out.

“Look there!!” one of my brothers shouted. We all looked up to see the rally of winds coming forth to send us in our different directions.

“Hello! How are you? Ready to go?” All of the winds spoke at once, welcoming us into their literal guidance. Simultaneously, they joined our cluster, shaping our paths and setting us in the direction that we were meant to go. All the while, our giggling and the sound the winds made as they walked among us blended together in perfect winter harmony. One wind took a handful of my brothers and I and pulled us along with great force. We kept picking up speed, until I was sick to my stomach.

“Excuse me, but would you mind slowing down?” I begged the wind. He obviously didn’t hear me because he continued and only picked up more momentum. Not knowing what to do, I closed my eyes tightly and just waited. I couldn’t tell which way I was being dragged and felt as though I would melt before I even landed. Finally, I realized that we were slowing down, and mustered up the courage to open my eyes. As soon as I had done so, I regretted it because the snowflakes surrounding me weren’t my brothers and sisters. I was encased in a flurry of unfamiliar faces.

“Ha, he must be a first timer!” someone exclaimed as my wind lugged me by. I could tell that the majority of snowflakes there had all been through this before since they were laughing at me. Humiliated and upset, I implored the wind to stop and just let me fall. Surprisingly, he listened and before I knew it, I was plummeting into a blanket of blinding white.

“AHHH!! I’m going to melt!!” I screamed, terrified out of my mind. PLOP! The sound I made as I landed attracted all of the other snowflakes that were stacked on top of one another. Once again, all eyes were on me.

“Hello,” I heard a warm voice say. I looked up to see a snowflake with a complicated pattern on her arms. She was already melting. Too scared to answer, I said nothing, and I must have looked weird because someone spoke up and asked me if I was acidic.

Finally remembering how to speak again, I blurted out a loud and awkward, “No!” The stares intensified and I could tell that they thought I was crazy. Luckily, my wild trip had exhausted me and within a few moments, I collapsed into sleep. As I awoke, blinking my eyes to focus them, all of the alien faces came into view. No one was staring at me anymore, all too absorbed in himself or herself, checking their melting progress.

“He’s awake, lets go say hello,” said a voice. It was the melting snowflake, which looked at me with a big smile. “Hello,” she said.

“Hi,” I replied nervously. Instantaneously, her smile got bigger and she pulled me around the crowd of snowflakes and introduced me to everyone there. Thousands of voices flooded my head with greetings and all I could do was smile. You can’t imagine how frustrating it is to know everyone who you’ll be living with this winter season and not knowing where you are and what potential harms may come. Seeing my distress, the melting snowflake pulled me aside.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Where am I?” I screamed, a little louder than I intended.

“Oh, right, I forgot that you didn’t know. We’re in Frost Valley.” she replied.

“Where’s that? Are there humans? What about pollution?” I bombarded her with questions.

She looked unsure, as if she was trying to decide how to answer. “There are humans, and some pollution, but not around where we are. There’s nothing to worry about” She said it calmly and without doubt. And what choice do I have but to trust her? And so, I begin my first winter, as a snowflake, in Frost Valley.