The Other Side

Right now, in sunny California and other areas in the West, life is at the complete opposite end of the weather spectrum from chilly New Hampshire. It’s an unimaginable world when you live in a place like Exeter. Every day, we trudge through the snow, kicking up mud onto the back of our pants and coming into class with hair that drips onto our Harkness tables. When the sun makes an appearance, we relish it. Our minds and bodies suddenly glow with the prospect of spring, although we eventually return to the depressing reality of the dreary winter that freezes us for months on end.In the West, however, the difference is drastic—and frightening. The drought that has been going on is predicted to be the worst in centuries; people are starting to be seriously concerned. In cities, the situation is not as daunting. There are far less lawns that need to be watered, and the citizens are mostly advised to take short showers and be mindful of how they use water. But the farther you go from urban areas, the worse it gets. Citizens in suburban areas have to control their lawn-care, and people in areas where more water is needed for the vegetation have to cut back completely.By far, farmers have it worst of all. Some workers have even decided not to grow crops this season; there is absolutely no sign of rain, and the water sources in the ground are dwindling at steep rates. Endangered species of aquatic life are being deprived of their homes by people filling up water tanks to support their plants. Even the air is having problems; pollution is hitting dangerously high levels without water to cleanse the atmosphere. The risk to people’s health from just breathing the air outside is causing school to be cancelled for many children, among other changes that are being made to keep citizens inside.If students here at Exeter were more aware of this situation, happening just as blizzards rage around us, maybe we wouldn’t have the want to complain so much. Or would we?People tend to live by the phrase ‘the grass is greener on the other side’ as if it were the golden rule. We want what we don’t have; everybody seems to feel this way at some point or another. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it also isn’t necessarily something we can help. Every winter, I watch Christmas movies. I have snowball fights with friends and stare out the window during class at the way the snow-topped roofs of buildings make everything look so much more beautiful. Everywhere I go, I can’t help but notice the festivity and happiness that comes with snow and the holidays.Yet, eventually, winter break ends. I go back to school, and something is different. Work starts piling up, the cold in the air is like a bitter pinch instead of an exciting chill. And, just like every year before, I find myself dreaming of the beach and green grass. And the winter has only just begun.It seems that there is a pattern here. Is it human nature to get bored of what you have, no matter how much you wanted it, and no matter how amazing it is? We certainly seem to portray this characteristic in our use of technology. It seems that there is always a new smartphone or laptop to buy, and no matter how long a person has had the one he/she just recently bought, once the newest advertisement is out, one can’t help but feel the desire for the cooler and prettier and faster product. It’s often noted that Exonians complain a lot, but one can generally assume that complaining is just what we do as humans.We often hear about horrible natural disasters happening around the globe, and we notice that the conditions in Exeter are favorable to most other places in the world. Obviously, this is not an “Exeter bubble” problem, and it isn’t that we don’t care. The tragedies that occur around us directly affect some of us, and we make efforts to help in any way we can, by fundraising and reaching out to the affected, among other things. And yet we still complain an incredible amount about small things, and take for granted many of the privileges we have here.The problem is that we grow used to what we have and are unable to resist taking it for granted. That’s human nature, and while we can, and should, try to work on being grateful, we should not feel bad for this innate quality; the grass will always seem greener on the other side. 