Allison Jacob, '09, hails from sunny California

Hibernation: a deliciously long stretch of months where an animal goes into their burrow during the winter season to nest in the warm environment of a cave. The furry animals currently are the students of Proctor Academy and their habitats are their dorm dens: down-comforter lairs with a few boxes of ramen noodles and cheez-its scattered across the floors of their caves.

It is 2:15 PM, and I walk into my dorm room on the third floor of Ives to a mess of a room and a hardly passable walkway to my own bed. My roommate is fast asleep inside her cocoon.  I climb into my own bed to curl up to sleep or maybe watch a movie. We have almost three hours now until we choose if we want to get up and out to get fed, or decide that it’s just too cold to even think of functioning.

I hear rumors of what the temperature outside is, but I ignore them and proceed to check the weather out in my home state - it’s a whopping 80 degrees today. I compare that to what I  see outside my frosted window: a huge mound of layered ice and frozen trees against a cement colored sky.

In all fairness, the winter may be some people’s favorite time of the year. They love being outside in the snow and skiing. The other half of us that were not born and bred in this kind of climate should  rarely be seen except for at certain meals and classes I manage to wake for in the mornings.  Kathleen Pongrace is a spectacular specimen for my evaluation. She is a first year junior from Washington D.C, with an afternoon activity of yoga class. After yoga, Kathleen says that the time can just be so excruciatingly long that she feels like she can do nothing but give in to sleep. She claims that it is “inhuman” outside.

Some people are just born unable to adapt to the cold frigid climate of New England. Bears seem to have it all dialed in and know the right times to show their faces and come out - only when the green trees start bursting with buds.