As a girl from just outside of Washington, D.C, I am fairly familiar with winter temperatures. It can get pretty chilly, dropping to the mid twenties in January and February. Sure, the area doesn’t get nearly as much snow as Clinton, NY, but it still experiences winter nonetheless. So, like any normal person who lives in a seasonal climate, I own a super warm and long winter coat. In high school, I would throw this coat on whenever it started to get chilly and face no judgement, but things are very different at Hamilton.
At Hamilton, donning your winter jacket for the first time of the year is like some kind of symbol of your toughness, mental and physical. If you start wearing it too early, you are labeled a weak southerner from a temperate climate, but don it too late and you will likely freeze to death. Thus, Hamilton students have this kind of subtle game as the seasons change to see who will crack first.
The freshman usually cave first; some of them have never experienced a real winter before. Their big coats and heavy snow boots elicit a compassionate chuckle from older students who know exactly what to expect. In fact, it seems the jacket-donning time gets later and later with class year. As if each year at Hamilton you gain more mental and physical toughness in order to hold out. I have also noticed that men on campus especially like to delay the use of their winter coat as long as possible. Perhaps this is some subtle way for them to show off their masculinity, I really don’t know, but seeing them wearing sweatshirts in thirty-degree weather really stresses me out. If you haven’t picked up on this already, I am the type of person who starts wearing her down jacket on the first slightly cold day, which is why I believe this winter jacket stigma needs to end! I am tired of getting cold just looking at people wearing tiny little fleeces (or just a tank top!) on a cold winter day. Hamilton’s attitude towards winter jackets needs to change. To all the freshman out there reading this, you don that winter jacket as soon as you get cold and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!