Do You Ever Wonder?

Do you ever wonder what makes a person like a certain type of weather? Is it buried within our genetics? Is it the way we are raised? Is it the month in which we were born? Is it parents who bundle their children up in too many clothes all the time so that they don’t develop a tolerance for the cold?

For instance, I love cold weather. I don’t get cold the way other people do. Even when I’m out in the cold and come back inside with skin that feels like ice, I don’t feel cold or chilled. And if I’m moving, I often have to remove my jacket because I get hot easily. People who know me, and ask me if it’s cold outside, know that they will need a jacket when I say, “No.” I was born in February and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area where (when I was growing up) the temperature during the summer rarely got above 75 degrees. A heat wave was 85 degrees. For a long time I could not tolerate hot weather. It actually made me feel somewhat sick, and lying on the beach in the sun was out of the question. However, when I began to show horses, most of the horseshows were in the central valley where it gets really hot, so I learned how to sweat and hydrate. But given a choice, my body will always prefer cold weather.

Most people I know love hot weather. They go out in weather that makes me run for the air conditioning. I see them outside, a lot of them without hats, turning their faces to the sun, lying on the hot beach in the hot sun, going to the State Fair in 100 degree temperatures and actually enjoying it. I wonder how they can stand it. They apparently don’t feel the heat like I do. And most people I know get cold easily. I’m endlessly baffled by people who need their jacket in 65 degree weather, but I know they do.

So why do people like either hot or cold weather? Are they born that way? Is it the way they are raised? Is it the weather they grew up with? What do you think?

104 comments August 16th, 2008