Winters in Oberlin

Coming to the end of my fourth winter here in Oberlin, I finally feel like I can rightfully make judgments on whether I love it or hate it. And I must say, I don't hate it as much as I thought I would considering I spent my entire life growing up in a nice warm place.

The first snow of the season is always sort of a magical thing, regardless of your feelings for snow. I think it's especially magical when you fall asleep and wake up to a fresh blanket of whiteness outside your door. Though the first snow never usually lasts for very long, it's pleasant, and maybe the fleeting quality of it is part of what makes it so pleasant. I will never forget the first snows of the season, how they marked the beginning of winter and the change about to come.

The rest of winter is never nearly as pleasant. When snow comes down a couple inches at a time week after week, you can't help but think that it's never going to end. And those brief moments of relief are filled with one person paths along sidewalks left unpaved or sidewalks filled with slush that can be treacherous, wet, and just plain unpleasant. And when it all freezes again once the night comes and temperature drops you have to be so much more careful about where you put your feet. The worst part of it all is definitely the wind. Snow on its own can be pretty when it falls and sometimes fun. But when it's flying at your face at 20 mph to the point that you can't see very well cause you can't really open your eyes and your face freezes on the 10 minute walk to school, you hate it.

What made winter the most bearable were those moments of peacefulness and beauty that you can really only experience in a place where it snows, and a place with large open spaces. I don't think I would have enjoyed winter nearly as much if I had been experiencing it in a big city. Those mornings after it snows and you walk across Tappen square where the snow is expansive and undisturbed are some of my favorite moments in Oberlin. The open space also allows for an array of snow creatures to be created or massive igloos or even obelisks. The most recent one I've seen is a snow stegasaurus. The other part that made winter more bearable were those moments walking in a very slight snowfall, when the snow is not really snow, but very close to the verge of just being some form of rain and it glitters like crazy because of the water crystals and the ground becomes this sparkling expanse that you walk on and the sky a sparkling wonderland that you travel through.

Overall, winter was definitely bearable. At times I hated it and wished for the coming of Spring to hasten, but at other moments, I was completely at peace looking out, walking through, and simply being in the cold that was my 4 winters here in Oberlin. I'm glad I did it.