Two years ago, as I began to visit and apply to different universities that could potentially become my second home for the next four years of my life, I did not have any particular preference as to where I truly wanted to go.
However, all of the universities I applied to had to comply with one small condition. Believe it or not, I wanted my dream school to be located somewhere where I could experience the change of seasons throughout the year.
Living in a never-ending and sometimes unbearable humid and hot climate my whole life, I had never experienced a change in seasons. Therefore, I wanted my college years to ideally include 2 or 3 months of warm weather, a period of cool and breezy temperatures where I could see the leaves in the trees change colors, some months of cold and snow and, finally, some months of mild spring weather.
Besides enriching and contributing to my first two college years in many incredible ways, Notre Dame has also fulfilled this particular climate requirement. Nevertheless, this weather prerequisite of mine turned out to be very different from what I had expected and brought along with it a bothersome dependency of which I was at first completely unaware of.
From the moment I arrived at Notre Dame, my wardrobe and mood relied on the daily imprecise and varying information provided by accuweather.com and many other weather forecasting websites. This dependency has drastically increased this spring semester.
Last year, the winter season was relatively good. It began late in October and ended in early March. For someone who had never experienced extremely cold temperatures, it seemed perfect! But this spring semester has been a whole different story, characterized by irregular and unpredictable temperature changes that not even accuweather can predict.
Last week accuweather got it right, indicating that spring had finally arrived with sunny and mild 60 degree temperatures. Consequently, I saw a significant change in my overall mood and clothing selection. I felt happy and wore less layers and a lot of color.
Yet, this past weekend, as I got a glimpse of the weather forecast for the upcoming week, disappointment and frustration quickly kicked in. The website indicated a week of snow, wind and 30 degree temperatures! Could this really be true? Thirty degree weather meant wearing my parka, boots, sweaters and scarves all over again. This would completely alter my previously happy and colorful spring mood.
So, after internalizing this unbelievable April climate, I invite all of you who are dissatisfied with the weather to follow my new plan. I have given up and decided I will not rely on weather forecasting websites anymore, nor will I look outside the window every morning in order to choose what to wear. Weather will not affect my mood from now until the end of the semester. I will wear whatever I feel like wearing, as if I lived in a place with a constant and unchanging climate. Maybe the predictable and unbearable hot Caribbean weather is not that bad after all.
