‘Two Sides, Same Coin’ Column: Winter survival guide

It’s the most terrible time of the year: the winter.

The long, cold nights, the accumulated snow, the endless layers of clothing, the countless hours spent inside and my forever fading tan are all of the reasons I hate winter.

But, mostly, I hate the cold. Many students could agree, but some might also think it’s the best season. Whatever your opinion is, the fact remains that it’s hard to get used to it coming from purely tropical weather.

So, as a first-time winter survivor and second-time survivor-in-the-making, I’ve decided to tell you what I have learned from surviving my first winter.

• Bundle up: There is no worse thing than being underdressed in the winter. You shiver uncontrollably as you walk to class, your hands go numb and you can’t feel your toes. Trust me, not a pleasant situation. It’s way better to be overdressed, even if you overheat when you’re inside. Just wear a lot of layers. Rule of thumb: Unless you look like a puffy marshmallow, you’re not wearing enough clothes.
• Accessories are a must: By accessories I mean hats, scarves and gloves. They make your outfit cute (this is a plus for girls) but they’re also very practical at keeping the warmth (which is why they’re applicable for guys). The less skin you leave unprotected against the bitter winds, the better.
• Shoes: Shoes should (and by “should,” I mean “must”) be comfortable, but warm. Also, they probably should be waterproof. Don’t do what I did before; I had weather-proof boots and wore Converse in the snow. Your feet will end up wet and extremely cold.
• Long periods of time: If you’re going to be outside for more than half an hour, look up the temperature outside. Divide that temperature by two. Wear what you’d wear for the temperature that results from that division. It can get really cold, really quickly when you’re outside for more than just your 6-minute walk to class. In this case, if you don’t look almost round in shape, you’re doing it wrong.

They’re kind of obvious, and you’ve probably heard these things a million times. Maybe I sound like a broken record, but experiencing winter for the very first time last year was almost like being a little kid again. A clueless little kid, I might add, who didn’t even have proper winter attire until January and froze every time she walked outside most of November and December.

From getting excited about my very first snow to learning the ins and outs of dressing appropriately for the weather, it was a very educational experience that I could have never had inside the classroom.

Of course, I had heard horror stories from my parents – who studied in Syracuse and Boston, cities that are arguably colder than Bethlehem – about being snowed in, the slush and black ice. But winter is one of those things you have to experience to understand.

Just as my first winter was a learning experience outside the classroom, coming to college is so much more than the classes you take. Of course, you come here for an education, but there’s so much more to learn than math, science and writing. One way to do that is to meet people who are different from you. You end up learning so much about different cultures, different ways of approaching one problem, different ways of seeing the world and so many other indescribable things.

Sometimes you come to college with a specific sort of learning in mind, but end up getting so much more than just your major out of the experience. But you have to be open to it and embrace that not everything is going to be what you expect.