The Cold.

Having grown up in Florida, cold is not something to which I am very accustomed. Sure, some nights in gets below freezing, but that's a rare occurance, so rare that we would leave a sprinkler near the trees so there would be icicles before we left for school. Some mornings you need a jacket, but by lunch you're back in sleeves. Maybe some days you'd need the jacket all day. And perehaps twice in all of my schooling was I actually able to wear a shirt with sleeves to school and not burn up near midday. Cold and Florida do not often mix.

However, being closer to the Northern border of Florida makes all of the difference in the world. All of Florida is in massive freezing spells right now, but here it is destructive. Last week was bad, this is worse. I just checked the weather. 32 degrees outside (fahrenheit,) feels like 27. I used to think it'd be luck when it hit 30 at night. Now it feels like 27.

Last year, as a freshman, I was concerned with looking ridiculous or feeling ridiculous at college if I had too many clothes on, so I'd freeze walking to class in the weather wiht my jeans, long sleeve shirt, and hoodie. Not this year. This year I will wear as many layers as it takes to be warm. Some mornings, it's only cold on the walk to class, so I'll go to the restroom and remove some of the layers. I dn't care. Anything is better than freezing.

Firstly, jeans, while stylish and basically the only pants girls wear, do nothing to protect against the cold. Absolutely nothing. Do not depend on them, for they will always fail you. Instead, buy some warm leggings. Wear those leggings under your jeans. It's nice. Then, instead of one long-sleeved shirt, I wear three. Two wasn't enough. One for warmth, one for extra warmth, and one that is like a sweater or something should I take my hoodie off in class. I wear a hoodie over the three shirts. Sometimes two shirts is acceptable, but not today. Then I wear knee high socks. These are handy in mayn ways, especially with the leggings. Socks without leggings tend to fall, leggings wihtout socks rise up. But together, the friction creates a perfect balance which keeps my whole calf covered and safe from the cold. That is my basic winter wardrobe. Sometimes I consider wearing a scarf or hat. Occasionally I'll wear gloves. Maybe people think I'm ridiculous for wearing 16 articles of clothing or so to protect myself from the cold. You know what else is ridiculous? Death. From the cold. Metaphorical of course, becuase it never literally killed me. But I'm sure it killed a part of who I was every time I allowed myself to freeze so as not to feel ridiculous in all of my layers. Like the aforementioned camping story where I packed extra clothes cause I knew the weather. Sure, I felt weird bringing clothes to keep me warm, but hey, I wasn't the one freezing all night.

Today I'm even wearing two pairs of leggings to keep me warm. I'm not taking any chances after I was cold yesterday with my usual wardrobe. I wish Florida sold more winter clothes. Sometimes, walking around campus, I see people from other states with nice winter jackets. They look so mch warmer than me, in their heavy coats meant to keep out all cold. I have a basic cotton hoodie, that says Nike, that I got as a hand-me-down from my little brother 5 years ago when the Quicksilver hoodie I'd gotten from him three years prior to that had fallen apart at the wrists. I hate shopping for jackets. And this one seems to have lost alot of the ability to keep me warm. But I still like this hoodie, and don't wish to part with it. Also, I haven't found a new one that I like. I almost did, once, but it wasn't meant to be. They didn't have my size.

I guess all I'm trying to say is that I hate the cold. I take intense steps to avoid the cold. It may be very Floridian of me to be so intolerant of these changes in temperature, but I'd rather be intolerant than fake it and feel frozen the whole way to class. To all of you other Floridians freezing this week, just wear extra layers. It's not worth it to feel cold.