Snow! and suddenly everyone’s wearing hats. It’s strange meeting people for the first time when they’re wearing a hat. Sometimes it’s like they are wearing the hat, and sometimes it’s like the hat is something that’s unfortunately on them at the moment. Like shadow, or a big bird poo. You wish you could reach over and brush it off their head as a kind gesture.

Or, maybe this new acquaintance looks really nice in their hat. Possibly, this is because they look really nice all the time, but also maybe they have a funny shaped head under there, or mean eyebrows. You just can’t know. It shouldn’t matter. It’s just the not knowing that’s hard.

What’s the worst, though, is when someone knows how good they look in their hat, and then they act like the best versions of themselves while they are in the hat. Confident. Charming. Happy. But eventually you have to see them for the first time without the hat, and both of you are painfully aware of their loss of confidence.