During the miserable, cold, “I just want summer now please” winter months, skirts and dresses normally take an unreasonably long vacation in our closets, especially on Boston College’s unforgivingly windy campus. Although the days of flip-flops and bikinis are still too far away for a countdown, the ever-anticipated Skirt Day may be just around the corner. Even for those of you who have never heard the term Skirt Day, I guarantee you know the signs.
It’s March. Last week was dark and dismal. It was cloudy, it rained, and yes, it even snowed briefly. You start to believe that this whole “early spring” of Punxsutawney Phil and his shadow is complete nonsense. It will never be spring. It will never be warm. But wait – you check the forecast for tomorrow and see a high of 51 with zero chance of precipitation. This is too good to be true! After the weather you’ve endured, 51 will feel like a tropical heat wave. You’re left with only one option: you must wear a skirt. This opportunity is too good for you to pass by; it may not be this warm again for weeks. So it’s all decided. Tomorrow, in the warmth of mid-March, you will finally wear your skirt… You and every other female member of the Boston College community.
In a highly dramatized nutshell, this is Skirt Day. There’s no official set date but that doesn’t mean it’s not an official day. Girls everywhere participate and boys everywhere take notice. It’s like the scene from A Walk to Remember when Landon’s friend Eric glimpses a girl walking down the hall in a skirt and says “Where have those legs been hiding all winter?!” The boys outside Hollywood film studios notice those first pair of bare legs go by just as Eric does. In fact, boys can’t wait for the first signs of skin… um, I mean spring. As a junior boy at BC notes, “I think guys look forward to skirt day because girls stop bundling themselves up in their winter jackets and Ugg boots and start showing a little skin. Guys look forward to this because they wear skirts and sundresses which I think most guys would say girls look better in.” All those legs strutting across the quad and climbing the Million Dollar stairs, who wouldn’t notice?
For the females, there are some pros and cons of Skirt Day. As sophomore Stephanie Betzler says, “I’m ready for my legs to be liberated of boots and denim.” I’m sure there aren’t too many people who disagree with that statement. Skirt Day provides hope for the warm months to come and some relief from the cold we’ve been enduring. On the other side though, it does take a little preparation. “Since it means I’d have to shave regularly I’m not too excited for skirt day,” sophomore Nina Millman says while laughing. Although she may be kidding a tiny bit, that extra ten minutes in the shower can be a pain at times.
Whether you participate in Skirt Day this year or not, you will surely notice the plethora of exposed legs on campus. A day of liberation, preparation, hope, and relief. A freshman boy at BC even called it his “favorite day of the year.” Now the only question left: when will Skirt Day be in 2011?