Tis’ the Season

These days, it feels as though the sidewalks and building tops are perpetually covered in layers of snow. The SV-Scenery seems to have two settings:

1. Icy death trap

1. Copious mounds of snow… which always ends up degenerating into the former.

If, at any point, either of these two settings are not active, the universe itself seems to open a portal to another, snowier dimension for the sole purpose of dropping more of this frozen hell upon our doorstep.

Now normally, I’m a firm advocate for snow. However, I am much less of an advocate for ice, as my ability to walk and function like a reasonably capable human being is poor enough without turning street into an obstacle course. Not only that, but the sheer consistency of the snowfall has me convinced that Khione is hardly afraid of commitment.

With snowfall having dropped on the 5th, and expected to fall again from the 7th to the 10th, at least, I’m starting to think that I might’ve had more than my fill of snow for the year. If there’s a silver lining to be had here, though, it’s that cancelled classes means more nap time, which is something I think we all desperately need.

That said, too much of any good thing can be a bad thing , and I think we can all agree that the expected 17 inches of snow might be a tad bit gratuitous. The big question, then, is: where do we move forward, from here? The irregular schedules caused by the weather has more than likely put many of us behind, as far as classes are concerned. I, for one, am struggling to catch up with all of the things I’ll be having to get done for when we get back from Spring break. It’s a bit daunting to know that most of my time during this ‘break’ is going to be spent doing the exact same stuff that I’ve been doing. It doesn’t help that once we get back, we’ll be nearing the final stretch of the semester -which is also reputably the most hectic and stressful time of the year.

All in all, we can all expect the many snowy days to be quite problematic for us, in the long run. That said, there isn’t really that much that we can do in the moment, is what I’m realizing. The best thing we can do is take the weather as it goes and desperately hope to whatever gods are listening that this all doesn’t come back to bite us in our collective bums. With all of that in mind, let’s go over what you can do, with the absurd oversaturation of snow:

Have Some Fun

Honestly, the fact that it took me several days to finally come to the realization that fun was a thing that I was allowed to have is actually a kind’ve scary thing to think of. I suppose that’s just a testament of how much joy college life really sucks out of you -I found a gray hair in the mirror, today. But once I actually got around to no longer feeling sorry for myself, I came to realize that there’s a lot that suddenly becomes acceptable to do, when it’s colder than my heart, outside.

I cycled through a lot of different pastimes during these periods of peace. I watched some movies, read some books, drank some tea; hell, I actually found time to write something of substance for my book! I also did some goofy things like building a bed sheet-fort (highly recommended) and binge watching anime from within. Everything is fair game when you have nowhere else to be.

The point is: even when you’re locked inside by absurd amounts of snow, there are plenty of fun things that you can do from within, and even by yourself! Oh, sure, I’m probably going to be suffering immensely by the time I get home for Spring break, but it’s not like I can worry about it right now; best to simply live in the moment.

What I’ve learned from all of this is that when the universe is conspiring to break your little heart, -especially in the context of the sheer emotional mutilation that college seems to put a lot of us through- there are plenty of ways and reasons to remind yourself that you’ve only mostly sold your soul. Try smiling, a little!