Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Posted January 29, 2015 by Hayley Botnen

So I was wondering if winter was ever going to hit the Boston area. Coming to Massachusetts from Montana, I was told by everyone, “Watch out for their winters! It’s colder out there! Make sure you’re prepared!” I’d been a little let down by the weather so far.

I’m not particularly a fan of snow. In fact, I usually say that I don’t like it. But growing up in Montana, you get use to snow starting around October and lasting through about March. Occasionally, it snows outside that time, like when I went to my Freshman undergrad orientation, and it snowed in June. That was unusual, but I just bought a pair of socks and a pair of sweatpants from the school store and called it good.

Now, I can say that I’ve finally learned what a Boston winter is like, and it wasn’t as bad as I expected. It was a lot of snow. But what surprised me the most was how everything shut down. I never had a snow day growing up. It was one of those things I had read about and seen in picture books and movies, but I never experienced one. If there was school, you went to school. There could be rain, snow, wind, power outages–the only time my school cancelled classes was when we had a water boiler explode overnight and freeze. For me, It was entertaining to see how quickly everything shut down.

I was more excited by the snow we got on Saturday than Monday and Tuesday. Saturday, I had class. I had to get up and catch a train and wander to campus in the snow. And it made me happy. Being without snow was really hard. It makes life seem so different from home. I always think I’d like to live somewhere like Southern California or Hawaii, but in reality, without snow, I just feel very confused about the year.

So while I’m not looking forward to trekking to the train station and to campus from the T stop, I keep getting a little bit happy. Snow is inconvenient, but it’s so fun. In it’s own weird way, snow is very comforting to me. For those of you who experienced your first Boston snow like me, I sure hope you enjoyed it! I feel bad for people who experienced the bad effects of the storm (power outages and flooding are the worst). But I hope we’re all ready to see the next storm with some experience under our belts.

All the Best – Hayley