I remember how winter felt five months ago. About once a week I’d visit it in my head, shiver at the thought of ruthlessly whipping winds and deadlines. I’d visit it when I shut my eyes, while the sun was too bright to stand, and shiver before forgetting and continuing to look for a shady spot. It’s hard to picture the frigid silence of stinging winds while the birds and bugs of summer never quit buzzing steadily in your ears. Remember that sound? The hum of life, overfilling each day like the sunlight would, and at night it didn’t stop, it just quieted down while the ground cooled.

And now, here we are. In one seamless flurry, turkeys were devoured and Christmas lights ignited around us. Suddenly, we’d love to take a break and remember the opposite end of the year, but there’s no time anymore. We’ve got to speed walk to get out of the cold, speed read through our assignments and then speed walk again to make it to class on time. There’s no need to imagine how cold feels anymore. In fact I need to use all the power of my imagination to keep the cold from being the only thing I think about as I push against the winter wind.

With cold, commiseration gets popular as a medium of conversation, and that’s no surprise. Bitching is the only form of conversation that actually becomes easier as your lips get chapped. And yet, those in the Minnesota winter know that not everything is as it seems while it is frozen, buried and dead. We know that, although the complaining comes easy during these quiet months, it is really done for sport, to warm up a little. The bitterly dry wind is a pain, but it’s only skin deep. Below that cracked, dead surface, something warmer blooms each December. It’s that something that makes sliding down a frozen hill at night on a tray an irresistible temptation and an unforgettable night. It’s the same something that, in an era of 3D HD TVs, makes a flickering fire the most novel and hypnotic show under the crisp black sky. From the barren winter, we learn to see the beauty of simplicity once more. The unrelenting cold makes kids of us again as we return to an ancient perspective. One in which a cup of hot cocoa glows like liquid gold.

This perspective is what you trade in when you move to Florida for the winter months, and it’s a terrible thing to give away. I used to curse why school had to burn up right as winter froze. I’d marvel at just how bleak the dark months could become, but now I wonder if pairing the cold and the papers may be an advantage, albeit a challenging pain. Just as Minnesota has learned to cherish the simplicity of warmth through the annual frostbitten masterclass of winter, so can we find what simple element of our work we really enjoy while we are beaten over the head with the intensity of tests. This year, instead of charging through finals, biting the bullet and powering against the wind, you could revel in the cold and head pounding work in order to really feel where the sparse warmth comes from. Maybe, while we wait at the burning cold street for the bus, we learn the patience that might bring us closer to finding out what we really want to do with our lives. Well, at the very least it’ll give you something else to think about as you walk against the cold.