Oh boy, how I do love winter…but only for approximately the month of December and my birthday in January. It’s a conditional love, okay? While I love the occasional snow flurries that fall on my eyelashes and glitter in the Christmas twinkle lights, I do not love muddy slush. At all.
Since we have about 8 different types of winter in Western New York, we’ve been in this limbo of fake winter, real winter, fake winter, real winter, fake winter, FAKE SPRING and then all the way back to real winter. I don’t know about anyone else, but my sinuses really do not love this specific game of limbo.
If Apple was to look at the analytics of who uses their weather app the most frequently, I would be the last person on that list. Guaranteed. I know, I know, it is one of my very worst habits and I pay for it by getting caught in the rain without an umbrella, in a blizzard without a coat and in the mud in my perfectly white sneakers.
On Monday of this week, I had the best surprise given that, of course, I did not check my weather app. I never have my blinds open because I’m essentially a vampire and am scared of natural light. So I wake up at 7:45 to pull myself out of bed to almost miss my 8:30… don’t do the math on that…it’s embarrassing. When I finally walked through the living room to go out the door and speed walk to my car, I saw the sunshine.
Now, sunshine in the winter can be deceiving. Some days, the sun will be shining and I’ll step outside with a grin from ear to ear and be slapped with a negative wind chill. Because of this unfortunate experience that occurs oh so commonly, I did not get my hopes up on that Monday. But boy I should’ve.
The wind wasn’t wind, it was breeze. The birds were chirping, and the sun was…warm.
I know it may seem like a small insignificant detail that the temperature raised a few degrees; however, the warmer weather was something I didn’t know I needed so desperately. I was bounding from class to class on the pavement that hadn’t been dry in months, I was soaking in all of the sunshine and I didn’t even mind if I got a bit of a sunburn.
It was so nice we even had class outside! We even convinced our professor to go to the firepits at the Devereux pavilion and make s’mores. I know, I’m pretty persuasive… what can I say!
Seeing campus alive again with students playing spikeball or soccer and filling up every picnic table around campus made me fall in love with St. Bonaventure’s campus all over again.
After being cooped up all winter, the ability to get outside and really soak in the sun was something I didn’t know that I needed. Taking advantage of every second that I could wallow in the warmth really brightened my spirits and warmed my soul.
I think most Western New York winters can last a lot longer than is good for the average person, especially the average college student. Going for a walk, reading a book, kicking a ball or even playing lay down on the grass in the sunshine is free chicken soup for the teenage, or the not so teenage, soul after this dreary season.
Pro-tip… just make sure you don’t skimp on your sunscreen. While my lack of weather app use has caused me to get soaking wet from rain, freezing cold from snow and dirty from mud, the most common consequence has been ending up a lot more red on a sunny day than I intended to be.