WINTER versus SUMMER
    
    Troy Michaelis
      In Nebraska, we experience changes in each of the four seasons.  Summer and winter provide the most dramatic differences.  These changes make life more interesting.  Winter and summer contain several similarities and differences dealing with each others outdoor activities, holidays, and jobs.  
    People may participate in numerous fun activities during both seasons.  Sports and other leisure activities are experienced, but the ways of enjoying yourself may vary greatly.  On the one hand, during summer you can have picnics, go swimming, play sports like tennis and sand volleyball, and just relax yourself by sunbathing on the beach or in the serenity of your own backyard.  On the other hand, winter is known more for things to do that deal with snow. These especially include skiing, hockey, sledding, ice-skating, and snowboarding.  In addition to snowy sports, it's a time to play games like Monopoly and Scrabble, or you can watch the Star Wars trilogy the day after Christmas every year on USA as well.  It's not difficult at all finding ways to enjoy yourself in either winter or summer.
    Also, the seasons offer time to spend with family and friends during the holidays.  While there are about the same amount of holidays for both winter and summer, they deal with different aspects of our culture.  Summer holidays are based more on the history of our nation.  These holidays celebrate happenings like our Independence Day, a remembrance to the veterans of past wars for Memorial Day, and admiring the many laborers of our flawed, yet great country on Labor Day.  However, winter consists more of families getting together for religious holidays (like Christmas and Hanukkah), and the celebration of the start of each new year by holding some giant  festivity.
    Of course, summer and winter aren't just about fun and games, as most adults and children alike have jobs to do.  Everybody needs money to make it through life, even the many spoiled, mouthy, little brats in the world, and there's an almost countless number of ways to get that cash.  Summer jobs can be easy chores like mowing the lawn and life guarding, or those more difficult low paying jobs (that I must suffer through) like detassling and shingling houses.  Whereas summer gives you a large amount of jobs to choose from, winter is much harder to find work.  With school and all, about the only thing there is to do that I could think of is to scoop snow.  Jobs are an important part of both summer and winter but are more plentiful in the summer.
Though I have described to you a couple diversities and similarities between the seasons of winter and summer, there are many others.  I could have gone into more detail about the changes in weather the seasons bring, but I thought that would be a little bit too elementary for a sophomore level essay.  It was actually fairly difficult trying to decide the topics to use without explaining the obvious.  If I had to decide which season I was more fond of, I would definitely have to go with winter.  I just can't stand weather above 80 degrees and can not imagine living somewhere like Arizona.  However, I would gladly live by a nice beach (preferably one in Europe with tons of French babes).  Now if we could only get some (insert Timothy Daulton accent) “bloody snow” to cancel school a few weeks, my life would be perfect.