I am an optimistic person, and I genuinely try to not let small things effect me at all, but something I truly cannot enjoy is walking around campus in below freezing temperatures. It makes me so grateful that I have a home to go to, and warm clothes, but also makes me question why on earth I went to school in New Jersey.

As the seasons change, so can our moods. The cold makes us want to be inside, do nothing, and seems to be all everyone talks about. What we should do is change that focus of the cold being so miserable to being a time of "unwinding". By no means do I mean unwinding as another term for hibernation, but a time to focus on certain things, or hone in on a change you want to make in your life. The cold does not bring much to do, or much enjoyment doing anything outside of the walls of your home, so maybe this perspective can help a bit. Unwinding can be little things, such as making yourself a nice meal, trying a new routine at the gym, calling someone you haven't spoke to in a while, or watching a movie that reminds you of childhood. Unwinding is not laying in bed aimlessly scrolling through social media, nor is it binge watching shows on Netflix (or Disney+, for that matter). I have found that those two very common activities of winter can only escalate seasonal sadness.

Sure, classes will still be in session and life will still be busy, but when the seasonal desire to not leave home rolls around, you might as well try to be productive. As someone who is very susceptible to seasonal affective disorder, it is easy to let the icy days of winter to steal away my drive. Last year was hard, I hadn't experienced seasonal affective disorder in college before, and it made me want to run away from school as far as possible. I got behind in my work, and I was not doing anything productive, besides crushing seasons of Grey's Anatomy on the daily.

That lifestyle did not work for me, so I am going to try to "unwind" for the winter, perhaps focus on mindfulness and physical health. I hope we all can use the gray days of winter to possibly better ourselves in some way.