I grew up in a place where it is supposed to snow regularly between January and March, and sometimes even in April. I grew up making snowmen and snow angels in elementary school, and always hearing about snowball fights, even if I hadn't been in that many.
Last winter, while it was quite nice, was unexpected for me. There were warm days, cold days, and NOT ENOUGH SNOW. Winter to me is snow--so much snow that I get sick of it. Last winter, I could count not only the amount of times it had snowed, but also the amount of inches of snow we'd gotten, on my fingers. It was disgraceful.
This winter, it seemed like it was going to be more of the same...and then Nemo came along.
Nemo, of course, couldn't have been good for everyone, but for me, it was very good. It started with my classes getting cancelled for the day, and having the due date for a problem set pushed back. That alone made me quite content.
Then, I went out for some meetings that I still had, and I saw what I'd been missing for some time--the whole yard, roads and all, in a blanket of white. I slugged my feet through the snow and tried to avert my eyes from it as the wind blew the snow directly at my eyes, but even then, the six-year-old in me leaped around, and I was happy as a lark. Finally, some snow!
I went to my meetings, hung out with some people, and then went back to my dorm and worked for a while, assuming that we were to hunker down for the night much like we did when Hurricane Sandy came along. I resolved to do my work, but as I looked on Facebook and saw pictures of my friends playing in the snow already, my heart pined. Then, someone invited me to an event--a snowball fight at midnight. There was my goal--work until that snowball fight.
When the time came, I put on my rain boots, coat, gloves and hat and went outside. I was a bit early, and only a handful of people were in the yard playing football and stuff, so a couple of friends and I went over to the steps of our colossal library, which should be a government building instead of a library. This library happens to have a ton of steps, which combined with a good foot of snow, makes for great sledding. We came when most of the snow had been scraped off the stairs, so my first sledding experience was a very bumpy ride, and I fell off the tray I was using. After a bit of sledding, I headed to the yard, and the snowball fight had begun! People were running about having snowball battles with each other. Others ran past me chasing their friends, and there was even one guy with a crutch who joined the party. I saw quite a few friends...and threw snow at almost all of them.
At one point, a lot of people decided to assault a fort that had been made. Everyone advanced towards the fort, including a guy with a yellow flag, and charged at the people in the fort with snowballs. Unfortunately, that fort got reduced to smithereens.
I eventually went back to the library, where people were still sledding, despite the fact that some of the stairs were iced over. I marveled at the fact that the snow was still falling. It was as if the weather wanted to make up for all of those missed days in January. I accept its apology.
I eventually went in feeling extremely happy that everyone had come out for a snowball fight. It was definitely one of the best nights I've had in college so far. My college is pretty intense, and the stereotype goes that the college is full of prudes who spend all their time studying and overachieving. But this night reminded me why I was attracted to this college--Harvard--in the first place; because the people here are not prudes. We study and overachieve, yes, but it isn't beyond us to loosen up and be kids for a night.
I don't normally do recaps of events here, but I felt this deserved one. This is one of those "thank God it happened" days for me. Aaaah, so fabulous.
My friend Peter recorded part of it, so here's the link to his video; the charge is at 0:50!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDOeaicu7F8&feature=youtube_gdata_player