How I Prepared for the Beginning of Winter Semester

A couple of weeks ago, I began the migration back to my apartment here in Syracuse. Between all of the things I’d brought home with me, all of the things I needed for the winter and all of the food I’d gladly brought back from my parent’s house, I barely had the energy to think about school by the third trip up to my third floor apartment. However, classes started the next day and break was officially over.

Starting a new semester always comes with the same new semester stress, even in graduate school. Even though I don’t know how to get rid of the stress entirely, I’ve learned how to mentally and physically prepare myself for it. The problem with the winter semester is that not only are you starting an entirely new schedule, but here at Syracuse, you’ll be starting in negative temperatures. After four winter semesters in Buffalo, I’ve realized that the winter semester is an entirely different beast. Winter semester takes preparing for.

First, I needed to mentally prepare. My first step in mentally preparing for the winter semester is to pretend it isn’t happening. Deny, deny, deny. I cleaned my apartment top to bottom and pretended it was still break. The next step was sitting down and realizing that break was in fact over. As excited as I was to start my new classes, I needed to come to terms with the fact that it was time to buckle down again. Once I’d scanned through Blackboard and written down my new schedule, it was time for the final sleep before classes.

Typically, preparing for the first day of classes means getting your books, pens and papers ready. During winter semester, preparing becomes an entirely different, everyday routine. It started with checking the weather for that morning; 7 below, with a wind chill of -20. After I’d tried to understand what that temperature could even possibly feel like, I gave up and started picking out something to wear.

I needed at least one pair of pants, maybe two. Generally I’m not the most fashionable person, but as far as I’m concerned, fashion is irrelevant when the wind chill is -20 and I walk 15 minutes to class and back each day. Double pants was the only solution. Layers are key in winter semester; I recommend wearing all of your clothes at once.

I’d finally remembered to bring all of my winter gear back so another 10 minutes of dressing myself and I was as ready as ever. I’m certain that during the winter semester, it takes less time to walk to campus because even though I trudged through the snow of un-shoveled sidewalks, I was focused on getting out of the cold. Nothing makes you walk faster than a negative wind chill.

I walked back into Newhouse and my face thawed while my dread melted away. I was reminded of the long nights, the friends I’d see again and even through the struggle of last semester, the memory of solving problems put me at ease. I didn’t think I was ready for winter semester, but while I was caught up in the end of winter break I’d forgotten about all of the new beginnings and all of the things lessons I’d learned last semester that I could put to good use.

As we come to the end of week two of classes, I can honestly say that when I walk home from class the cold air feels refreshing. My brain has already started to churn with new ideas and thoughts for projects, and I feel excited again. The arctic trek to campus everyday isn’t ideal, but the new beginnings are worth it.