Emily Sullivan
Associate Editor
This past Tuesday, I had to leave my townhouse earlier than normal to get to a plenary for Clare Forum. Normally on Tuesdays, I get a ride with one of my roommates, especially since it’s so cold out.
Since I had to walk, I threw on my thickest pair of jeans, a heavy pair of socks, my warmest boots, a long sleeve shirt, two coats and a scarf. As soon as I left the house, I was thankful I had a warm hood on one of my jackets.
But as I made my way to class, still shivering despite the strategic layering of my winter attire, I found myself walking behind a guy wearing a hoodie and shorts. My immediate thought was he was heading to the gym and didn’t feel like changing once he got there, but I was wrong.
He walked right past the gym and made his way to Plassmann Hall for class.
The weirdest part is he isn’t the first person I’ve seen do this.
While some of you who were lucky enough to escape to warmer regions of the country over winter break, many of us were still stuck in Western New York and had to deal with wind chills lower than minus 30. Tuesday wasn’t nearly as cold as those few days over beak, but when I looked at my Weather Channel app around 4pm, it was still minus 7 outside.
The very thought of wearing shorts in minus 7 temperatures makes me shiver.
Not dressing warmly enough during cold weather is dangerous. Sure, you can end up with a cold or the flu throughout the year, but when you expose yourself to that much cold, you only increase your chances. And you can still suffer consequences much worse than that. Hypothermia and frostbite are just two of them.
People tend to hate it when I say this, but everyone at Bonaventure chose to come to a school in Western New York, and the brutal winters around here aren’t a secret. Dressing warmly when it’s cold out isn’t something you should do. It’s something you need to do.
Putting on a pair of pants, a jacket and scarf before leaving your dorm in the morning is something you need to do for your own good. If you decide to take the chance and wear clothing not fit for the winter weather, don’t complain when you end up with a nasty cold. Chances are, it could have easily been avoided.
It’s winter. It’s Western New York. Until we finally roll around to the warmer months, like April and May – if we’re lucky – let’s pack away shorts, put on the scarves and hats and keep ourselves warm and cozy.
Emily Sullivan is an associate editor for The Bona Venture. Her email is sullivec10@bonaventure.edu.
