Your fifth alarm clock rings annoyingly from your phone. Half asleep, you wake to the dark morning, feeling as if you just entered your bed. Grabbing your phone, the bright screen lights up. Straining your eyes, you glance at the date. With its cloudy monotone skies and cold dreary weather, January drags on ever so slowly in what some call the most depressing month of the year.

There are many reasons for the unwelcome title. By now the excitement of the holidays are over and the new year has come and gone. Holiday bills pile up overnight and begin to take their toll. If that was not enough, January is reported by many to be the most common time for breakups as so many want a fresh start to the new year. Many people simply have nothing to look forward to anymore.

The warm colors of spring seem so far away from reality and with it, the joyous talk of spring break plans. For students, a new semester starts as the pressure of keeping good grades for the rest of the year looms over their heads. The dark nights and miserable weather on the coldest days of the year don’t help either and seem to make everything worse. But there is hope for this sorry month.

For me, the dark colors of winter are a welcome in a state so often gripped with humid weather. Winter is my favorite time not only for the holidays but for the aesthetics; the dull colors have a certain tone which I like, sad or not. Even the possibility of snow is welcome as I sit in my room bundled up looking out the window. Perhaps a little melodramatic, but when I’m outside, the condensation as I breathe out and even the winter clothes appeal to me much more than sweating in a shirt and shorts.

To rid yourself of the winter blues, I would suggest staying healthy mentally. As the cold weather drives many away from outside activities, keeping busy indoors is equally important. Popular things to pass the time include coloring and painting as many take to pens and canvas outside of the classroom.

Moreover, for the movie fans, January is listed as a “dump month” for film companies to release films deemed to do worse later in the year. This includes genre films, good news for those looking for easy spooks. If going out is not an option, Netflix’s new show End of the F****** World has brought critical acclaim for its teen-centered plot. Binge watching even one show would be a great distractions to get you through the month.

There are certainly many reasons for the depressing month of January to be so desolate but for me there’s just something so appealing about the muted colors, gloomy sky, and cold air. Break-up rates, school, holiday bills; all overshadowed by my expectation for what’s to come in the new year and offer a fresh start. When I turn my phone alarm off for the fifth time that morning I lay in bed and smile, maybe January won’t be so bad.