Now that we are in the middle of the freezing winter months, it's time to talk about ways we can stay warm. Since I currently live in the frozen tundra of north Minnesota, I can give a few tips.
1. Wear appropriate clothing.
Pants, winter coat (not a jacket), hat, gloves, stockings, thermal underwear, sweaters under your coat, boots, fuzzy socks inside the boots, and about five t-shirts. The essentials.
2. Make sure you're eating warm foods and drinks.
You can't go wrong with a hot bowl of soup for lunch before you run out into the freezing wind to go to class. We also drink a lot of coffee or hot chocolate here. Hot beverages are the best for keeping you warm, whether that's putting your hands against the warmth of the mug or deliberately spilling it down the front of your shirt because it's all you have to stay warm, that's your prerogative.
3. Have an "inside" jacket.
On days when you are finally inside after walking across campus, fighting the biting wind the entire way, and you sit down in your classroom and find that it's still absolutely freezing - because apparently, even though many of us go to extremely expensive schools, we still can't afford to turn up the heat - you'll want to make sure you have your inside jacket. Most of us wear this underneath our winter coat, but you are also allowed to wear it as a hat around your head if you seem to have misplaced your beanie.
4. Don't go outside.
The absolute best thing you can do to keep warm, after you have put on all your winter gear and psyched yourself up to step outside, is to just not go outside. You'll find that your class or your test or your job just isn't that important when it comes to braving the gale-force winds of the frozen wasteland. Just stay home, curl up in a warm blanket on your comfy couch, and turn on your current Netflix binge show. Or you can curl up next to your significant other, or your pet, and snuggle with them to keep each other warm and watch a movie together. Either way, you're staying out of the below zero temperatures and staying in your cozy home.
The weather is going to do whatever it wants to do this winter, and we're going to be expected to deal with it and keep moving on with our lives. So these were some ways you can stick it to the man (or Mother Nature) and keep warm during the coldest time of year.
