I wouldn’t by any means label myself as a season, but if I did, it would definitely not be winter. It’s a tough season, and it's usually pretty long, dark, and cold. Winter reminds me of finals and lukewarm coffee. Plus, my hands get really dry and I really can’t deal with that on an everyday basis. It can get pretty cold in Nashville (where I’m from), but I never could really understand what it was going to be like living in the snow. Now that we are a couple weeks out from the first real snow of the season, I'm only a little bit embarrassed to admit that even though it was almost 45 degrees today, in the shade it was totally, like, 30 degrees colder, I swear. I was freezing and totally unprepared. Obviously, you can guess that I didn’t grow up anywhere near Colorado. It's true. The closest I ever came to snow was when I went skiing in the spring with my parents (seriously, not even in the coldest part of ski season--it was late March). Also, I didn’t own a puffy coat, or as it is probably known to much more "mountainous people"-- a “down jacket” (whatever, they both sound legit to me) -- until literally my first year at CU.

Last year I tried to play it cool in front of all my new Colorado friends whenever it snowed, but I was completely freaking out on the inside. And actually, so cold. Since then, I have noticed that out-of-staters bundled up in coats and snow boots when it’s 40 degrees and sunny outside get a little bit of flack from those lucky enough to grow up in Colorado. We might just be getting used to the temperatures... or we’re complete babies. Either way, just cut us some slack. Don't you notice how cold we look?

As my third semester is coming to an end, I have a new-found appreciation for the Boulder winters. Yeah sure, it's really cold, and sometimes it's hard to get around on the random streets that don’t get plowed. After a couple of days, however, once the sun comes out, everything is good, and you can once again be found in a light jacket (instead of the typical fur-hooded parka).

Winter also means Christmas, the Boulder star, lights in the trees, an excuse to always have hot coffee in your hand, and the beginning of ski season. While I was completely bagging on wintertime at the beginning of this article, I’ve actually come around to changing my mind. Winter is a pretty cool season once you really appreciate everything it has to offer. But that doesn’t mean I don’t miss flip flops and shorts pretty much 24/7.