By Matthew J. Martinez
One of the great things
about living in Michigan is the wonderful weather we get in all of the
different seasons. Summer allows you to soak up the warmth at one of our many
festivals or enjoy one of our breathtaking bodies of water. Autumn
calls for scenic drives all over this great state to enjoy the amazing color
the foliage provides with crisp, thick evening air. Winter brings
holidays and skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiles. Spring brings new
life with flowers and leaves on trees along with warm air and long walks.
We Michiganders love our
winter, at least at first. The first fresh snowfall blanketing the
earth a bright white elicits memories of building snowmen and having snowball
fights while getting an extra day off school. The snow and cold
weather, in the beginning, provide for many specific activities our families
can enjoy together and provoke memories that will last a lifetime.
Then, February happens. February is the shortest month by days, but always feels like the longest month of the year. As February progresses and the sky remains gray, more and more people get the winter blues and start to crave warmer weather. We start searching for something to hope for. Usually 28 days, February can feel everlasting. Just when it feels like winter will never end, spring training starts.
There are many ways to
escape the doldrums of winter. Daydreaming of Hawaiian settings and
swimming pools like Clark Griswold is one way. Others, like myself,
retreat to Florida for the entire winter to escape it
altogether. For many of us in this area, we cling to spring
training. We see our beloved heroes swimming through the heat of the
overflowing Florida sun.
We watch as Miggy and
Verlander make practical jokes in T-shirts, while we are bundling up with more
layers than the little kid in “A Christmas Story” just to bring the garbage
cans to the backyard on trash day. We lose ourselves in
storylines and how the rotation will shake out. We see the first
glimpses of stars of tomorrow and the new veterans acquired
in the off-season. Spring training allows us to forget about the
fact that ice and snow is built up around our entire lives. For many
of us, it is the exact hope we search for. It forces us to realize
that there is green grass hidden somewhere under all of that
snow. We can see a light at the end of the tunnel of winter,
illuminated by the Florida sun shining on our ball team through our television.
Spring training leads to
opening day, the unofficial start of spring for baseball fans around the
country, but especially here. It is the beginning of a long baseball
season that spreads through three of our four of nature’s beautiful
seasons. The goal of our beloved Tigers is to win a World
Series. We have faith in our coaches and general manager to put a
winning team on the field and provide an experience at the ballpark that is
second to none. They build loyalty with the fan base.
We, here at Community
Financial, are not all that different. We are a team put together by
our leadership to provide service you won’t find anywhere else. We
strive to hit a home run every time a member calls or walks into one of our
branches. We set out to gain the same loyalty the Tigers enjoy from
the people of this great state. So, as we look forward to spring
together, stop into one of our branches, grab a coffee and let our service warm
you up!
Matthew J. Martinez is an underwriter at Community Financial.
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