Happy February!
This week, I thought I would go over my top 5 necessities to survive the Boston winter season. Obviously, this list is debatable, and I’m sure there are over a dozen other things even my friends would be quick to add (and a few they would remove) to the list. However, these are the things that have saved me from catching some serious winter blues and probably some even more serious colds.
Now, a lot of students have grown up in places with all four seasons like Boston. They have had a lifetime of experience toughing out even the most intense winters, and they’re not scared of a few feet of snow. They know how to put chains on their tires (a concept I didn’t even know existed until I got to Wellesley…), and salting the roads and streets were childhood chores (again, what?). My list of five necessities isn’t really catered to these people.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and I saw snow maybe once a year when my family would drive a couple hours to spend the weekend skiing/snowboarding. Even on those weekends, I spent most of my time indoors, enjoying the snow from the comfort of a couch by a fireplace. If I did step outside, it would be in full snowboarding gear, and nothing could penetrate that outfit. This list is for people like me- people who did not grow up with seasons and have an embarrassingly low tolerance for the cold (both physically and mentally). So to those people, enjoy (and to everyone else, I hope you at least get a laugh out of my complete inability to exist in a climate outside of the 65-95 degree range)!
- Invest in a good, thick coat
Everyone told me to layer. They told me that the outside was cold, but that the moment I would step inside anywhere, I would be burning up. Everyone told me that more than a thick jacket, I needed a series of increasingly larger jackets to just layer onto one another as to remain comfortable indoors and outdoors.
This was a lie.
Invest. In. A. Thick. Huge. Marshmallow. Jacket.
Layering, while theoretically great, means that you’ll spend a good amount of time just taking things off and putting them back on every time you go anywhere. It gets tiring. Also, layering several thinner jackets ≠ the warmth of a truly thick one. As someone who has no need for a thick jacket outside of Boston, I fought getting one for a while, but it really just is necessary and a game changer!
- Happy lamp
When I first heard about the happy lamp, I thought it was a joke. I didn’t believe a light could make a difference in my mood, especially when they’re technically around us all the time when we’re indoors.
This was silly of me, and I wish I didn’t spend those first few months (when the sunset went from ~7:30pm to ~4:00 pm) of experiencing my first Boston winter wondering why my mood was always so down and irritable.
- Hand warmers
Now these really might not seem like a necessity, and they probably aren’t. However, if there is one thing on this list that made me feel unexpectedly so much warmer, it was those little hand warmers (both the type you can reuse by microwaving or the ones that are one-time-use). When I invested in a thick coat, I knew I would be significantly better off, but with these hand warmers, I assumed they’d be a nice touch but nothing more.
How wrong I was.
While the jacket made going out bearable, the hand warmers could make bearable turn into comfortable! Just trust me on this one 🙂
- Thermos
Frankly, you should just own a thermos. For the environmental reasons and the fact that they can be thrown into a bag, thermoses are a good investment for students (and everyone)- especially since there are so many great options now that truly do keep your drinks warm all day.
A warm drink on a cold, winter day? That’s something I can get behind, always.
My crazier (albeit, many of whom grew up in the east coast) friends actually keep ice water in their thermoses over the winter season because they feel that a lot of places overcompensate for the cold by making the indoors extremely warm.
Whatever it may be for you, I recommend a nice thermos
- Staying active
This one was truly hard for me to come to terms with. When it’s cold, dark, and everything is a bit icy, all I wanted to do was stay inside, curled up in bed; however, finding fun things to do outside with friends is really important for the long run. Winters are always going to come around, so having traditions or discovering activities you enjoy to help pass the time is essential!
A couple things my friends and I enjoy are taking pictures together in the snow doing the usual snow angel/snowman/snowball fight, going ice skating (either at frog pond or indoors at Babson College!), having a picnic, visiting bookshops, cooking or baking something new together, and trying new restaurants.
I hope this list makes someone’s winter significantly better!