Welcome back to Notre Dame, everyone! I hope everyone had safe travels and a great start to the spring semester! However, I think we can agree that at Notre Dame, calling the second term of the school year a “spring” semester is wildly inaccurate.
Whether you are a Midwestern winter veteran or if you never see a snowflake in your hometown, navigating campus during a South Bend winter is challenging. Travelling anywhere on campus means marching through snow in frigid temperatures and enduring the unforgiving wind tunnel that the campus becomes every year. It seems that no amount of layering is enough to protect against the sheer cold of South Bend winter.
Even though the weather can be downright atrocious at times, I would argue that winter at Notre Dame is an important and mandatory part of the Notre Dame experience. Every student and faculty member is a participant, however unwillingly, in Notre Dame winter, which can span from October to April (although we got lucky this year with a relatively balmy December). The weather is such a constant presence and daily struggle that it is socially acceptable to talk about the weather. It is a shared Notre Dame experience that unites all of us. “The weather” has become a legitimate conversation topic between friends and acquaintances, freshmen and seniors, students and faculty alike. We love to commiserate about the winter, report the daily changes in the weather (“my phone said it was 4 degrees this morning!), and trade our strategies for coping with the cold and shortcuts through buildings. And hey, the Arctic conditions outside justify extra Starbucks runs with friends, right?
Traveling through the equivalent of a snow-covered wind tunnel is also great motivation to get to classes as quickly as possible. Anytime spent indoors, even if in an unbelievably boring lecture, is vastly superior to the time spent outside. I think it helps make us more grateful for what we have to keep us warm, such as places to live, winter coats, hot beverages and warm hugs from loved ones. Plus, the daily satisfaction of conquering the weather can be a great feeling, especially on an otherwise unremarkable day. We goes through “trials of ice” instead of fire, and we come out as stronger people.
Winter at Notre Dame may seem bleak and cruel, but it also makes our college experience unique. Students, faculty and alumni will talk about the winter as much as about the great academics, innovation, and impeccable sense of community found at Notre Dame. We might hate the weather, but we love to hate it, and Notre Dame life just wouldn’t be complete without it. Have a great rest of the week, and stay warm, everyone!!!!
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