How about that weather?

I've never lived in a tropical climate before. To be perfectly honest, before coming to Micronesia, I had never even been anywhere tropical, so as you can no doubt imagine, living on a small island situated less than seven degrees north of the equator has required a bit of an adjustment. 

I grew up in Michigan, where the first snowfall usually comes around Halloween and the ground doesn't begin to thaw until mid-April. In case you're keeping score, that's about seven long months of winter, give or take. 

Don't get me wrong, Michigan is beautiful, but the seasons there, in my opinion, are grossly disproportionate. Spring and fall go by far too quickly, and the two months or so of summer in the upper midwest are often marked by sweltering temperatures coupled with oppressive humidity, during which the mosquitos make the most of their brief existence. 

The wild fluctuation or extremes in temperature that has been a daily consideration virtually every day of my life isn't so much of an issue here. That is to say that there's no heat index of a hundred and ten and no forty degree changes in weather in matter of a day. Just eighty-five degrees with at least an hour or two of heavy rain every day, then seventy-five or so at night. It's predictable to the point of rendering weather forecasts virtually useless. 

Everywhere on the island, vegetation abounds. Cars that die on the side of the road are consumed by plant life. In a very literal sense, it's unquestionably the greenest place I've ever been. The air is fresh, cleansed by a substantial amount of daily rainfall, and my allergies have been almost non-existent since we've been here. 

Of course, there's a part of me that will undoubtedly miss wearing jackets, sweaters and jeans... and maybe even socks. I might even miss snow at some point. But I will say that even though it's not difficult to break a sweat here, there's very little self-consciousness that comes with walking into a store and looking like you ran a mile to get there.  

This brings me to a broader point, which is that the weather in Micronesia isn't really a topic of constant concern, nor is it the material of idle banter between strangers. On any given day, I can plan on wearing shorts and sandals and either getting wet or bringing an umbrella. I do expect, however, that the longer we're here, the more conscious thought I'll have to apply in remembering what month it is, and by the time we return to the U.S., it will probably feel good to wear a jacket again.