As much as I enjoy freezing walks to morning classes and re-wearing the same pitifully small collection of warm clothes I own over and over, this cold weather has gone on long enough. Living in Florida comes with many perks, and in most places one of those perks is perpetually warm weather. Unfortunately, Gainesville is not one of those places. As this winter drags on, I have realized that Floridians just are not built to endure actual seasons.

First of all, a large percentage of our students come from places in Florida that do not require a winter wardrobe, and it is a little too easy to pick these people out of the crowd when walking around campus. Sunshine state natives do not know how to dress for winter. I have seen both girls and guys who refuse to believe that 40 degrees is not, in fact, considered “shorts weather." While dressing ourselves for daylight hours might prove to be difficult, it does not even compare to the struggle of choosing an outfit for a night out. Trying to find the balance between looking hot and staying warm is impossible because there is no balance. When it comes down to it, there are only two options: saying 'screw it' and rocking the spaghetti strap crop top even though the rain drops indicating “percent chance of rain” on the weather app have transformed into little snow flakes, or dressing for warmth and looking like a nun. I have to say, arriving at midtown on a cold night and discovering that about half the people there chose option number one and the other half went with number two is a little disorienting.

Even though a ridiculous amount of time goes into choosing a weather appropriate outfit, the bottom line is that we Floridians would much rather be wearing swimsuits every day. I mean, really, who wouldn’t wish for that? While Rainesville has managed to make a few appearances this winter, we have also experienced a depressing amount of beautiful, sunny days. It is depressing because beautiful and sunny usually means a day laying out at the pool or a trip to the beach; but when walking across campus is the equivalent to trekking through the arctic tundra, it means sitting in bed and despising the weather for teasing us.

Winter may be especially brutal for Floridians, but I have come to the conclusion that it just sucks in general. Every college student knows the danger of procrastination. Fighting the urge to stay in bed and binge watch Netflix all day instead of going to the library, the gym, or that lecture class you still haven’t made it to is already tough enough. Adding the element of unbearable cold means there is pretty much no chance of venturing into the outside world anytime soon. Sadly, laziness is just another fatal side effect of this terrible season.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I am definitely stressing out about my lack of warm clothes, only being able to enjoy clear blue skies from my prison-like economy triple dorm room, and constantly reassuring myself that the weather is a reasonable excuse for watching 10 straight episodes of “FRIENDS” in one day. If this excruciatingly long winter goes on any longer, I will consider starting a petition to move UF to a warmer location. Until that works out, I will be in my bed hiding from the chill of Gainesville winter and daydreaming of a life where it is sunny and 75 degrees all year round.