That Thing Called Winter

Alexandra Neuber
Alpha Chi Omega

The cold, harsh wind is blowing in your eyes, causing involuntary tears. Your toes are freezing or may have already lost all feeling. You place one foot in front of the other and hope that you’re making progress on your journey. All you can think about is trying to reach warmth and why you thought it was a good idea to go to class today. Sound familiar? It’s the Ithaca winter. We Cornellians unfortunately must endure the cold Ithaca winter at the beginning of each spring semester – although, why is it called spring semester when we spend the majority of it freezing our you-know-whats off?

As a native upstate New Yorker, I thought the Cornell winter was going to be a piece of cake last year. However, I underestimated what a big difference there is between surviving winter while in high school versus college. When I was in high school, I only had to walk about 300 yards from the parking lot to the school. At Cornell it wasn’t that simple. Living in Low Rise 7 as a freshman, I had at least a 12 minute hike to each of my classes. Yes, there was the bus, but I could never time it right and would end up standing out in the cold for almost 10 minutes. Given the choice between walking in the cold or standing, I chose walking. I learned quickly that a 12 minute walk in the winter is a little different than the short walk from the parking lot to my high school.

Another factor that makes the Cornell winter even worse is the wind. Why must Cornell’s campus be on top of the hill? Didn’t the smart engineers or architects who designed the campus consider how windy it is at the top of a hill? Obviously not, which leaves us even colder and crankier. There were times last year when I wasn’t sure if the tears in my eyes were because of the wind or because I was so miserable walking to class. I considered wearing ski goggles for a while to protect my eyes, but didn’t want to draw more attention to the fact that I was a helpless freshman.

To top it all off, I made the mistake of choosing the wrong pair of shoes. I was convinced that the Hunter rain boots paired with warm, thick socks would do the trick. My frozen toes suggested otherwise.

Then there were the gloves. The week before heading back to school my Dad, aka the bargain hunter, found a cute pair of gloves for two dollars. They looked warm enough and were clearly a great deal. I had to learn the hard way that two dollars does not buy warmth.

My only saving grace was my jacket. I had a warm, down coat with a fur-lined hood that kept the heat from escaping through my head. If anything, my upper body was too hot in my coat. If it wasn’t for the coat, I would have had to curl up in a ball in a snow-bank and accept defeat.

Now that I’ve fully detailed my sob story, I want to offer some advice to make the winter a little more bearable.

First and foremost, everyone should get a good pair of snow boots. I can assure you from personal experience that rain boots do not count. Sadly, snow boots aren’t exactly a great fashion statement, but no one is going to remember how cute your shoes are – they’re just going to remember the painful, yet hilarious sight of you wiping out on a patch of ice if you forgo the snow boots. I suggest fur-lined Bean boots or Sorrels, which have successfully kept the blood circulating in feet.

Secondly, get thick gloves. Frost-bitten fingers are not attractive. Also, don’t even think about taking your gloves off to text. “What’s up, sugar?” is not worth the pain of frozen fingers. However, for those of you with touch screens there are some new gloves out there that are conducive to texting.

Also, get a good hat or a hood. Otherwise, you’ll lose too much precious heat through your head.

Finally, try to be on time to avoid insane speed walking or jogging. Running in the cold air with your backpack swaying back and forth and hitting innocent passersby not only makes you look like an idiot, but your lungs will be screaming in response long afterwards.

With that being said, I wish you all a good ‘spring’ semester and good luck surviving that thing called winter.