Dear 17

Dear 17,

It's as if we're meeting face-to-face.

Today, New York was covered in snow all day, just as the weather forecast predicted. When I left in the morning, there weren't many pedestrians or cars in the snow, so everything on the ground, cars, and roofs were all covered in a blanket of white, giving me the illusion that the world was so pure. But when I arrived in Manhattan, it was a different scene. The tall buildings disappeared into the clouds, and all the main roads were still crowded with traffic. Pedestrians trudged through the snow and slush on the ground, and the world was filled with a cold atmosphere. This was my first time seeing Manhattan in the snow, and everything was just as grey as I imagined.

Except for the pleasant surprise I encountered in this little park in West Village.

I wanted to go see the park in the snow. Were the squirrels leaving any traces? Were there lots of people in front of the statues? Would the musicians be performing? They were all absent. This one-block park was no longer bustling like it used to be, but it had become a small amusement park, covered in silver. Dogs slipped and played in the snow, rolling around and having fun. There were also about ten children, aged between one and six years old, jumping and laughing in the snow. One mother was alone, pulling two quiet children in a small sled, struggling to walk on the path. I couldn't see the children's expressions clearly, but I noticed the mother's determination on her face. There was also a dad pulling a sled with his shy little boy, circling around on the lawn. The four-year-old boy wouldn't step down from the sled no matter what happened, and just lay still on the ground after falling out of the sled. There was another dad, standing there with an indulgent look, watching a one-year-old baby and a three-year-old baby play happily. The dad occasionally threw snowballs at the babies. Later, several other dads with children joined them. The children's faces were red, either from the low temperature or excitement, and they laughed and danced in the snowflakes. I stood in the snow and watched them for half an hour, with a smile on my face that they had infected me with, and my heart was filled with warmth.

I never expected a smile to effortlessly climb up my face like this. In the past few months, I felt that the muscles on my face were very tense and heavy, and it seemed like smiling was taking lots of efforts. I spent the last quarter of last year working overtime, and the long period of illness and moving made me lose a lot of weight. When I looked in the mirror, I noticed that my eyes were no longer bright and were filled with exhaustion. It wasn't until I was infected by the children and dogs with my own smile that I realized how much older I had become in the past year. So when I was infected by the children and dogs with my own smile, I was very reluctant to turn around and leave until my knees started feeling the coldness. I was so delighted. I think you can understand, can't you?

Dear 17, we're really old friends now.