Yup, I'm happy. I'm spinning around in -6 autumn light, my face so red, my teeth stinging in the cold, but I can't stop laughing.

Me, here I am, living in the North, piling on layers of wool and plugging in my truck at night. Here I am, making friends, loaning out books, being invited out for drinks after volleyball. Here I am, now happier than ever before.

I am here, jogging beneath the power lines, through the waist-high golden grasses. I am light on my feet; I am running along the thin ridges between the frozen mud tire ruts. I glance into backyards, bark back at barking dogs, laughing all the way down the cut. I thought that the cold would keep me inside, but instead, the crisp cold sunshine beckons me and makes me run faster. And I run faster than ever before.