As the first snow of the year falls on our campuses and girls from Le Mans and Lyons alike begin pulling out their Ugg boots and parkas, I fear it's about to begin - winter is coming. After a beautiful fall weekend in the bend we've been hit with a reality check called Midwest weather, and with the temperature drop comes the real seasons of Notre Dame.
Winter on a college campus means many events are in our near future, and we must prepare for the long months ahead by knowing exactly what we're up against. For starters it's Peppermint Mocha season, the extension of yoga pant season and the "let's crash our cars on the Douglas round-a-bouts" season. It's hibernating in your dorm room season, HBO to Go "Game of Thrones" season and the ever-crucial "puffy jacket to your knees" season.
Let's not forget the important late winter months known as "Boyfriend Season," the time when the casual fall tailgating flirt evolves into the perfect excuse to hibernate through the snowy days on South Quad. What more could you want when the snow is falling than some dorm apparel and "Friday Night Lights" reruns on a Thursday in Fisher Hall? It's shackle season for a reason, everyone. Proceed with caution.
Along those lines, formal season is quickly on our tails. SYRs are cropping up on our horizon, which means Urban Outfitters dresses, awkward dates with random friends of friends and many after-formal brunch stories. Now, post-freshman year I officially resigned from the formal scene. I pretty much have acquired a 0-100 record for formal success and have officially decided reliving high school prom in college is probably not the best idea our campuses have come up with. At this point, I would just like to wish you all luck as you head out on Friday nights to the LaFortune ballroom for one North Quad formal or another.
It's also the beginning of the ugly Christmas sweater season, everyone, my favorite one so far. Now if there's one thing Notre Dame loves, it's Christmastime, and with that comes the much-anticipated ugly Christmas sweater parties. Thrift stores are scoured, tinsel and mistletoe hang over dorm doors and Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" is blasted from windows across campus. The uglier, noisier, flashier the sweater, the better. While some try to ignore the trend, I'm fully prepared to wear my sweater, complete with a cotton-balled beard Santa, for every weekend of November from now on.
So get ready everyone, because winter is knocking at our doors, and there's nothing we can do to stop it.
Contact MJ at mjohns01@saintmarys.edu
The views expressed in the Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
