Growing up in upstate New York, snow has haunted me since my earliest memories, annually drowning months of my life in an icy deluge. The snow submerging my infancy as I got older brought about some of my fondest memories – snowball fights, forts, and countless hours of skiing – but it soon began to get old. 15 years had passed, and I was still stuck under the same snow pile on the same farm outside of Albany. Soon, the prospect of boarding school offered me a possible escape. I thought I could just probe further south and break free of the frigid fetters of the north, but… I ended up at Loomis Chaffee, a mere hour from my house and possibly even snowier. 

During my first winter at Loomis in an act of unfounded insanity, instead of opting for a pleasant, heated indoor sport, I decided to join the ski team and freeze the marrow from my bones four days a week, not only on the mountain but also on the bus two hours out of every day. I dug a big parka out of the closet, and stomped onto the mountain, towards the very elements that I had endeavoured to free myself from. The frigid afternoons that I spent at Ski Sundown, however, turned out to be my most fun experience of any semblance of a team sport – trying to glide down that tiny mountain at breakneck speeds is still one of my favourite activities.

It was not only on the slopes that the snow followed me, as we received a hefty load of powder at Loomis which turned the campus from green and maroon to a monotonous grey and white. It was also during these glacial months that I got a new work-job, one of the most revered on campus: Trash Truck. Every Monday and Friday I tumbled out of bed, bundled up as much as possible, and walked the loop throwing bags in the truck, the ideal way to experience the glory of every trash corral on campus.

 Snow on the island comes with occasional benefits, the most obvious of course being the snow day, one of the most beautiful experiences for any student. Undoubtedly, waking up in the morning to a cancellation email could melt any iced-over opinions about snow. 

At this point in the winter, snow has again started to coat the campus, plunging us into the dark depths of winter term. Coming back from Thanksgiving Break, some of us were greeted with an idyllic icing to the campus, and others a barren reminder of the constant uniformity of our existence.