I don't know if you've noticed or not, but it is extremely cold outside. There's no denying that cold weather is one of the drawbacks of living in the Midwest, and one of the banes of college life. With cold weather comes snow and ice. And as pretty and as fun as a good snowfall is to look at, it certainly comes with its own set of drawbacks.
Without a doubt, it is a pain in the ass to drive in the snow. After a heavy snowfall, you find yourself leaving twenty minutes earlier to any destination. The first ten minutes are spent unearthing your car from the veritable mountain of snow and yanking on the door until you finally break the ring of ice that has sealed it shut. After that comes the task of clearing the windshield of ice and snow. Luckily, this is a task that is easily accomplished. Years of living in the Midwest have hardened most of us into virtual fifth-level windshield-clearing masters. An Indiana resident wields an ice scraper with as much skill and precision as a samurai would a katana sword. But even once we begin to drive, we have to creep along, wary of any slick patches on the road that disguise themselves as normal asphalt. If we were to take our eyes off the road for a moment, it would be plausible to see a turtle on the side of the road moving faster than a snow-covered street allows us to drive. In actuality, though, this is not possible, because turtles are smarter than humans in that they have enough good sense to sleep through the entire winter.
Cold weather is also detrimental to your health, and when the wind is blowing, the icy breeze can cut you to your soul. Getting sick is part of winter, and in the close quarters of a university setting, germs spread quickly. If one girl in a lecture hall is coughing one week, it's almost a guarantee that the rest of the class will be coughing by the next week. There's rarely a time in February when either you or someone you know doesn't have a cold or flu of some sort. If you cut down a redwood tree and only made Kleenex from it, it would probably last about eight days on a residence hall floor in February. Nobody wants to go out and have fun when they feel like crap; sometimes a Nyquil colada sounds much better than a beer.
It's during this time of year that class attendance is at its lowest. When morale, motivation and effort drop, it's clear to see that attendance levels drop as well. But even though we may not feel like going to class, we still have the responsibility to go. Cold weather isn't responsible for people missing classes - laziness is. Everyone knows that they can get out of bed and to class if they really wanted to; but just because getting to class might be more difficult in harsh weather, it doesn't mean we shouldn't try at all. I understand that walking from LaFollette Complex to the Burkhardt Building makes everyone feel like the protagonist in "To Build a Fire," but we have an intrinsic responsibility to our teachers, our classmates and, most importantly, ourselves to make it to class. If the Postal Service can keep delivering mail cross-country, we should at least be able to get across campus to our 2 p.m. class. It doesn't matter; come rain, come shine, come Muncie ice storm.
Paul Metz is a graduate student and writes 'Support Your Local Cynic' for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
Write to Paul at pjmetz@bsu.edu.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
