On this first day of autumn, I find myself missing my college friends and my college town, so I’ve decided to share this picture and a story with you all.  I went to school in Buffalo, New York: a place notorious for having some pretty cold winters. In fact, we made national news last year when in the span of less than 24 hours, parts of downtown received about 8 feet (almost 2.5 meters) of snow. Last year was no exception. In fact, we actually had about five snow days at the university, which up until that point was practically unheard of. This picture was taken at the apartment that my roommate and I shared during my last year of college. During one of those snow days, I glanced out of the backdoor and noticed that there was something that looked a bit cloudy on the awning. When I got closer, I realized that there was a spider web that had completely frozen into an icy silk sheet. I had never seen anything like it before and I just had to take a picture of it. If I remember correctly, that day was about 4˚F (-16˚C) and the wind chill was around -12˚F (-24˚C). While there were definitely days when I wished that I had just gone to school in the south or on a beach somewhere, I actually found that I had grown to enjoy the cold. I also had some pretty great experiences like learning how to push a car out of a snowy parking space, learning the importance of having thermal everything, and learning how to efficiently use the tunnel system on campus so that I wouldn’t have to go outside to get around. In my experience, nothing forms friendships faster than having to stay warm.

– Hazel

Photo © 2015 Hazel Arroyo