You’ve had the feeling.  Where you try and fail, try and fail. When you build your way up just to fall back down.  Until you try and succeed,  and you have that short renewal.  Where all that negativity about you not being able to do it just fades away and then is replaced by happiness and accomplishment.  That’s how I felt when I built my first snow fort.

In general, I like to construct things, fixing them too.  At least to me, machines are fascinating.  All the controls in front of me; even if I know what’s coming, I’m still excited as if I’m a child on his birthday.  But in my head, I’ve always wanted to build something big, something, me.

When winter came around, I dreamt of all that I could do.  Sledding?  Too original.  Maybe a trench?  Done that too many times with my dad.  Then I thought, a snow fort!  A new idea.  I sprinted up and down the basement stairs, jumbling my heavy snow gear, grabbing all of the necessities: a sturdy shovel, a snow brick maker, and oh yeah, my trusty dog, Cooper.

“This’ll be quick!” I said proudly, yet it wasn’t.  To save time, I built it off of a stone brick pillar to replace a whole wall.  On the first layer of bricks, it was no problem!  Besides the bricks were cracked and there were awkward gaps in between the bricks, it didn’t look too bad, seeing that it was my first time building a snow fort.  Then, as the bricks got higher, the work became troublesome.  With more bricks, they began crumbling, and falling, taking more and more bricks with them.  But I continued; with every mistake I tried again.  Snow too soft?  New brick.  Too hard?  New brick.

Brick by brick,  my dream unfolded.  Each fluffy patch of snow molded into multitudes of firm, frozen bricks.  The strong layers folded up.  Though they still were crumbling, they were still impressive.  As they built up, the layers relied on the stone post I had built the fort of off, but it held.

Attempt after attempt, fail after fail, I prevailed.  “Complete!” I boasted. My three hour struggle was finally over.  In my eyes, the structure was glorious.  Standing about four feet tall and three and a half feet in diameter, my castle was finished.

On the brink of 2018, December 30th, 2017, here I was again, back on the patio.  Geared up, eight degrees, shovel in hand, standing in the snowy abyss.  Ready to try again.

-Zachary Dumlao