Houston McLaury – Opinion Columnist

As the college was thrust into the hot embers of summer during the first week back from spring break, then tossed into the freezer box over this past week, many students have been subject to the wonders of the Minnesota weather cycle. Glimpses of the hot, warm, ice-melting sun for a few days, which are then taken from our eyes before we blink. This is the Minnesota way; the Minnesota weather that I have always known while growing up in this state. As I have lived through this vicious cycle, four days of intense heat, and a few weeks of winter-like cold, I have never been so strongly convinced of one fact and one fact alone: that being cold is better than being hot. 

Now, I need to make the statement that I do not hate the heat. I welcome it on some good, crisp summer days so that I may enjoy throwing the ball with my dog or traversing the creek behind my house. However, I cannot deny the fact that the summer heat is much harder to beat than the winter chill, along with the comfort cold weather gives. Hot weather rarely offers any comfort. Cold weather is best as a comfort, something for the soul, and one often have more control over how warm they want to get in cold weather. Hot weather does not offer this, which is why it’s better to be too cold than too hot. 

To tackle this problem of hot versus cold, we must consider the ease and control one has when they want to beat the temperature that is affecting them. For example, if it is too cold, there are a number of things one can do to warm themselves up. The best is adding layers to what they’re wearing. This means that a great many combinations can happen of sweaters, t-shirts, or jackets, all to make a wonderful mess of fashion during the winter months. However, there are always other ways to beat the cold during the winter. Warm drinks such as coffee, hot cocoa, and hot apple cider all with a wonderful aroma, flavor, and heating effect that warms not only the body but the soul as well. This expands not only to drinks but to soups as well. Sure, one can enjoy chicken noodle soup or wild rice soups on hot days, but having these fine meals on a cold night just feels right, it warms the soul. Not to mention one of the best parts of a cold winter’s night, the fire. While I personally have never experienced it, there is always a distinct feeling of warmth that comes from this imagined image of fire during these cold days which one can warm themselves up next to. 

This brings up another point that battling the cold offers: the comfort derived from these activities. When wearing a multitude of layers, usually the fabric is soft and heavy offering the wearer to feel comforted through the wearing of these items. Sweaters and a blanket on a cold night are the best comforts one can ask for during the cold currently being thrust upon the college. Then, as mentioned, there is the comfort afforded by hot coffee, hot cocoa, and hot apple cider, which fills the person with a warmth that seeps into the soul. The same can be said for any number of soups, all offering comfort that the brain definitely needs during these cold few weeks. All of these elements can come together to offer the best comfort in the face of the cold weather, joining with friends in front of a fire in sweaters, with warm drinks in hand as everyone settles in to watch a movie. These comforts are all allowed by the cold weather, and it’s easy to control how warm one wants to get. If someone is getting too warm, they can remove a layer, stop drinking the hot cocoa, and scooch away from the fire. Cold weather offers the maximum amount of comfort and all of the control one could want in regard to temperature. 

This is not the case for people during the hot days of summer, or during those four hot days the college endured near the beginning of April. While these hot days offer a variety of activities one can partake in, which is a huge bonus compared to the cold weather, it is much harder to regulate the temperature. Sure, one can remove layers of clothes one wears, but that can only go so far! One can drink cold water or cold drinks to try to help, but it rarely works in the way needed to truly affect the whole body. These activities are often ineffective in regulating body temperature, and rarely work to their full potential, making cooling down during hot summer days extremely difficult.

There is a joy that comes from these warm days of spring, one that my winter-addled self desperately needs. But, I cannot deny the ease, and comfort of warming up offers during the months of cold weather. Comfort that is rarely, if ever found, in the cooling down activities offered in hot weather. Because of the ease, and comfort offered by the activities in cold weather to warm up, it’s better to be in cold weather than hot.