As most of you know beginning Sunday, February 24, 2019, it started snowing hard in Eugene. In years past there has been snow but never like this. Starting at around 11 pm on Sunday night the snow started sticking to the ground. If you have ever spent a winter term you know that a huge amount of snow is rare. Typically the most that we would get is an inch of snow, or snow that does not stick because it is not cold enough.
Each year we hope for enough snow to cancel school, but no one ever expects it. Being from Southern California, I never had experienced snow. I have had a maximum of two snow interactions in my whole entire life. So the tiniest bit of snow makes me extremely excited, even if it melts right when it hits the ground. Sunday night it snowed all through the night leading up to the morning till about 11 am. I went to bed that night hoping there would be a bunch of snow on the ground but not really expecting much about it. When I woke up at 6:45 am, the earliest I have ever woken up for my 8 am since the beginning of the term. The ground was covered in inches of snow, and I had received a text saying the school had been canceled. I immediately woke up my roommate, who is also from Southern California and the two of us ran downstairs. When we opened our doors there was a winter wonderland. As we walked down our steps our foots sunk down into the snow. It was also still snowing so the snow that was falling on the ground was fresh.
People outside our house were building a snowman and had offered their sleds to us so we could go sliding down this larger hill outside our house. After sledding down the hill a few times, I immediately called my family. This is one of those moments I had always dreamed of this moment since I was a little kid. I was standing in the middle of the street, snow falling down, with all my friends, in amazement at what I was seeing.
About an hour later, all of Eugene was awake, everyone was out playing in the snow. I have never seen that many college students up so early in my life. You could feel the joy throughout the community, everyone was just enjoying each others company. The campus was filled with students taking pictures, building snowmen and just having fun. Everyone was just enjoying life whether that be sitting by the window watching the snow or snowboarding on the back of trucks. Little did we know that school would be canceled for the next two days.
Though the snow was beginning to melt Monday night through early Tuesday, the snow began falling once again starting Tuesday around 3 pm and all through Wednesday morning. For my friends and I, we know that this is something rare that happens so we wanted to enjoy every second of this because it will most likely never snow again. This week has been a Southern Californians dream and I am living for it. Enjoy these last few moments of snow, and stay warm Eugene.