Waiting Out Winter

The romantic part of winter in Chicago is long gone. I’ve forgotten the excitement I felt at the first fresh snow. How smoothly it blanketed the streets. I loved looking out the window, past the Christmas tree and onto the snowy streets.

Now, it’s just a game of endurance. Now it’s the days where the snow squeaks under your shoes and it sounds like nails on a chalkboard. Or days when it’s so cold, too cold to snow, and the trees are bare and the air feels blank except that it’s biting your cheeks. The new scarf that was cute and warm in November now smells like mildew and snot.

And maybe, if you’re like me, you question why you even live in a city with such awful weather. Why do you even put yourself through it? But maybe, on a good day, you can summon up memories of the perfect summer day where you linger at a beer garden with friends, or have a nighttime picnic, or go for an extra long run along the lakefront. And you remember why you’re willing to wait out winter.

So as I begin the querying process, I wonder if it’s just like waiting out winter. Those cold days, weeks, months of waiting to hear a response from an agent. Of hoping for a request for a partial, or better yet a full, or, the dream of dreams, representation. But some weeks, all you get are more rejections. Some weeks, all you get is more snow.

And you wonder why you go through it all. But then you remember that if you work hard enough, if you keep at it and don’t give up, an offer will arrive. Summer will arrive.