Now I should probably preface this entire article with the fact that I love being in cold weather. My favorite time of the year comes creeping in with the fall. The warmth of summer is finally gone and the great cold air of winter is right around the corner.
Jackets and coats aren't part of my wardrobe until the temperatures drop down to at least 45 degrees, at which point a sweatshirt will probably come on. I love the cold. It couldn't treat me any better.
If you're asking why I consider this a great thing, you are probably asking the right question. I should be more upfront — there are drawbacks to being a cold weather person, just as there are with being a warm weather person.
My extreme warmth actually works against me in warm temperatures. Every time I go into class, the gym or pretty much any other indoor place around – I get cooked. It's a sweaty, uncomfortable affair.
On the other hand, I don't have to complain about freezing my butt off on the way across campus. When I go out for a night on the town, I don't have to worry about a coat or scarf. There's no question; I'm not bringing one.
There is a critical time when this extreme self-warmth works against me, though. Whenever I sleep, I can't use a comforter, or anything more than a sheet for that matter. The window stays open during the winter; the fan blows cold air in. Naturally no one wants to hang out in my apartment.
If I share a bed with a girl, I spend the entire night losing sleep in fear of sweating to death. Cuddling is a great thing, but for me it has become a dangerous activity.
Now I can imagine all the people out there who will come back at me saying, "I would love to be that warm all the time." They are sadly mistaken. I've also heard people tell me, "It's better to be warm and just cool down." Nope, it is easier in just about every way to be cold and get warmer.
There are ways around the threat of overheating, but they aren't reliable and often end in failure. My personal favorite is shoving all the blankets to the other side of the bed, and then sticking one leg out into the open air.
The technique usually works for a while, but, on more than one occasion, my female counterpart has drifted back towards my side, bringing the heat levels up. It's a personal hell.
After years of trial and error, I managed to come up with the best solution possible. I simply put my bed directly next to the air conditioner. Even in winter, I've been guilty of busting out the A/C to stay comfortable. This also increased my bed partner's desire to cuddle, so the end result was a win-win.
Like I mentioned before, there are other problems associated with being indoors. I often find myself being too warm just sitting in class. I know Hopkins doesn't have the best central air in most buildings, but it's an obvious difference when no one else seems to suffer during lecture.
Yet despite all of these seeming disadvantages (that many people would love to have as an advantage) I would never give up my resilience against the cold. I feel like the Winter King when the snow comes around, and we can roll around outside. During the Snowpocalypse, a few of my friends described me as going into a ‘snow frenzy.' All I'll say is that it involves digging out caves into the snow.
I have often wondered about where my relationship with winter air comes from. I come from Chicagoland, a place of often over exaggeratedly cold temperatures during the winter. We do get a few days out of the year where the temperatures drop well into the negatives, but only fools go outside for that.
My father ran a snowplowing company during the winter months and would often employ me as a shovel boy for the sidewalks. Many, many four-in-the-mornings later, I think I became the cold-blooded being I am now.
Or I was just born this way, given the gift of superior circulation and endurance. I guess I'll never know for sure. If you want a helping hand for a snowball fight or building an igloo, I'm your guy. Heck, I've even been used as a human shield from cold winds. Either way, being cold is absolutely the best.
