You can imagine an individual from Wisconsin should be loving this weather right now, but I am not. I left all my wool sweaters, long underwear, hats, mittens and North Face arctic down parkas in the north where I thought they belonged. Between the snow of December ‘17 or this ominous, cold weather of February ‘18, Texas weather you have me fooled. But I am not bitter, I’m just bitter cold.

When I think back to Wisconsin, I think of snow, lots and lots of snow. Snow days in Wisconsin were saved for several feet of snow, and cold days, well, those didn’t exist. I think they currently “updated” winter advisory closures from below 10 to below 20 degrees. If it was that cold, you better have snow pants or like clay animated Christmas movies on a wheeled in television. However, with that cold came the beauty of snowflakes falling from the sky and snow that stuck to the ground. It truly was a winter wonderland. Not to mention the all you can snowmobile, tubing, skiing, and snowboarding. As I write this, I’d make fun of myself for complaining about being cold in 30 or 40 degree weather. Before I moved to College Station, I was living in Madison, Wisconsin where I had to walk a mile to and from work everyday. I will never forget walking those miles during the record breaking Wisconsin artic cold. My eyelashes froze together and I couldn’t blink. The ends of the hair were completely frozen like tiny icicle daggers dangling from your head. I think I still have a scar. Don’t get me wrong, the cold never stopped anyone attending Green Bay Packer games at Lambeau field during the months of December or January. It was a right of passage to go to the Frozen Tundra when it was frozen. You can take the cheesehead out of Wisconsin but you can’t take the Wisconsin out of cheesehead. For the last two months, my fellow Sconnie friends and family back home poke fun when I tell them that 40 degrees has me shriving and I am begging for my parents to send help (aka my parka). I describe it as “bone chilling cold;” the cold that goes straight to your bones. Walking to and from school every day has me stocking up on emergency-c and ultimately waiting for the flu plague to hit me. But I persist. It truly is a different cold here in Aggieland and I can’t believe I am saying this, but I want the Texas summer. Yes, I said it. I want the hundred degree weather. I moved to Texas for warm weather not whatever this is. Who is with me?

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Jenna Schwartz
Jenna is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Educational Psychology