By CHANDREYEE MUKHERJEE
Let me begin this post by stating the obvious — it is terribly cold outside. The windchill has ensured that my fingers feel like sticks of ice as opposed to parts of my body and my nose resembles Rudolph’s red one.
The thing that strikes me the most about the cold here is the fact that it is settling in in the middle of October, a month I describe as “hot and humid” back home in India. My brain is having a decidedly hard time accepting the weather outside, yet at the same time, it is in awe of the beauty of Ithaca.
The last time I saw fall snowfall was about five years back in Seoul, where the fallen leaves and snow would cover the roads of the city and the effect of winter on nature could only be seen on the distant mountains that lined the horizon. However, here on campus, I feel like I am in the lap of nature, getting a bird’s eye view of the changing seasons.
When I came to Cornell, the trees were covered with bright green leaves that I used to hide under to escape the strong rays of the Ithaca sun. Sitting by Beebe lake and feeling the wind rustling through my hair was my remedy to a bad day and finding any excuse to remain outdoors was my quest.
The shift in season was quite slow and unnoticeable initially. A few leaves started to change colors to reveal their orange, brown and red hues and began to fall off the trees. With this came a slight dip in temperature. Still, I remained oblivious to the cold and tried to answer the age old question — to Instagram or buy winter clothes? Clearly, Instagram won by a large margin and I continued my task of taking photographs of every corner of the campus and sharing all of these captured memories with my followers.
Soon, the hills turned into a crimson blanket, each leaf looking like fire when the sun’s rays hit it. The cold started getting comfortable in the town of Ithaca and I finally decided that it was time to invest some time in buying my winter clothes! Still, the cold didn’t seem indomitable.
And then the weekend of October 16th happened. When my friends told me about the predicted snow showers, I simply scoffed at their suggestions and went so far as to mock them for coming up with such wild theories. So you can imagine my surprise when I walked into my dorm room on a Sunday morning and saw that it was snowing outside. Despite the cold, I trekked from North Campus to Mann Library in the snow shower and the entire way I could not stop admiring the beauty of the campus. The roads were tranquil and all one could see were the tiny flecks of snow falling from the sky. Now imagine this scene with a bunch of friends joking, laughing and chanting weird slogans as they walk towards their final destination – if this isn’t the beauty of life at Cornell, I don’t know what is!
As the seasons change and the harsh cold of winter slowly but surely becomes a reality, I suggest we all bundle up and prepare for the impending battle with steaming cups of hot cocoa. Until next time!
Chandreyee Mukherjee is a freshman in the College of Engineering. She enjoys singing, eating and daydreaming whenever she can spare five minutes from homework. Her blog appears on alternate Wednesdays this semester and she can be reached at [email protected].