A Small Brit Across the (Ice-Covered) Pond

So normally I write about things that make me feel really British, or out of place in this American culture that I live in. But my blog is called “A Small Brit Across the Pond,” and I never really pay much attention to that first identifier. I’m not a particularly small person – I’m kind of an average height, average weight 19-year-old girl – but everyone has moments when they feel particularly small. Sometimes these moments sort of creep up on you out of nowhere and you end up being shocked that you can be so suddenly reduced. I like to think of myself as a pretty together and confident human being, but there are always things that are going to be bigger than us and bigger than we can handle.
 
As everyone is now fully aware of, Chicago and much of the Midwest was hit by a HUGE blizzard last week. There are feet of snow on the ground, cars buried up to the roof, and I saw people skiing down Sheridan Road today. Oh, and not to mention Northwestern closed for the first time since 1979 on Wednesday. #snOMG #Snowpocalypse #Snowmaggedon and all that jazz. But oddly enough, this is not what made me feel overwhelmed, tiny and insignificant this week. It’s related, but it wasn’t the snow itself that made me feel small – it was the immense sense of community that emerged on this campus.
 
I was in my friend’s dorm when the announcement came in Tuesday night that Northwestern would be closed on Wednesday, and it was immediately met by screams of delight, loud music blasting, and students running up and down the halls celebrating. We hugged, we laughed, we collapsed on the floor in relief (that was mostly just me), and then we all donned our winter jackets and headed outside to play in the snow. The merriment continued late into the night and began again Wednesday afternoon with an all-campus snowball fight. I couldn’t personally attend, but the pictures showed hundreds of students uniting to attack each other with balls of snow. We were warned to stay away from the lake, yet almost everyone I’ve talked to spent at least a few minutes standing on Lake Michigan (some during the height of the blizzard).
 
All of this is wonderful, but it doesn’t really explain why I’ve felt so small. I guess it’s just the realization that I’m one little part of this huge community, this huge group of people who all united behind one very snowy front. Of course people will be happy that classes are cancelled, but the excitement and feel that struck the campus was beyond happiness. It was pure, unadulterated joy that flowed seamlessly from one person to the next, connecting every single one of us together. It made me feel as if I’m just this one tiny atom in our molecule of a campus (yes, I’m that big of a nerd), but this isn’t a bad “tiny” I’m talking about. It’s the best tiny in the world. Feeling that connected to thousands of other people lets you know that yes, there are things far bigger than you, but we’re all in this together. That’s something I’ve believed from High School Musical through to Lost, but it really is true, and Northwestern’s reaction to The Chicago Blizzard 2011 absolutely reminded me of this fact.