During the winter, you can easily see a change of mood in students at SUNY Cortland. Friends who usually walk to and from classes together, taking their time with smiles on their face, turn into bundled up figures moving as quickly as they can to their destination. Someone once told me, ‘something about the snow pelting me in the face, and the cold weather engulfing my lungs in pain makes me much rather stay in bed and avoid class as much as possible.’
Students come to SUNY Cortland from all over, but a majority are from areas where this weather isn’t too common. Freshman are usually told that the winters here are long, cold, miserable, and something that’s hard to get used to, but that doesn’t seem to stop them from coming. I feel as if the people who choose to come here thinking the weather won’t affect them quickly reconsider when temperatures below freezing first make their appearance. When these temperatures takeover, those who aren’t used to the crazy upstate weather rethink their decision of going to a school in such a polarized climate.
I’ve heard from many people who go here that they could have chosen any college in the world, yet they chose one that attacks them with miserable cold weather. Those who say this envy those who chose a school where the sun always shines, believing that their walk to campus isn’t as brutal as what they have to experience.
As soon as the trees gain their leaves back, the green grass begins to reappears, and the skies turn back to blue, the faces of students at SUNY Cortland revert to smiles. Students begin to feel proud about their choice of attending this college and you begin to see the campus come back to life again. The campus gets out of its ghost town funk, and you begin to see students fill campus again. Whether you’re walking through campus dorm areas or driving through the small town of Cortland, you see the town being taken over with ambitious SUNY Cortland students.
Talking to students who traveled to the Cortland area, they say they’re so happy with their decision to branch away from home when the weather is acceptable. The warm weather here brings so many opportunities for these students to get their mind off of missing home. Phone calls home are positive, and expressive of the love for where you are. Whereas the phone calls during the winter are sad, and sound as though you’d do anything just to be back at home.
Just remember: however bad the winters here may be, the months of fairer weather make up for all those cold treks to class.