Strange weather is a common in upstate New York, but what is perhaps even stranger is the way people react to it. This may be earth-shattering news, but this has been a pretty weak winter for Oswego. There’s hardly been any snow or rain since the semester started, and while temperatures have been about average, there hasn’t been a blindingly cold day yet. Rejoicing in the mildness of this winter, especially the lack of snow, would be universal, right?

For some strange reason, that isn’t the case. There are some people I know who are actually disappointed by the lack of snowfall. I really don’t understand it. I hate snow with a passion. I don’t mind cold weather, but if there are several feet of snow outside, I get annoyed. People ask me why I go to Oswego State, to which I respond that I didn’t have the grades or the ability to afford the out-of-state tuition for a school like Pepperdine (which is right on the beach in Malibu, Calif.). If I had both of those things, I would be out of here faster than you can say “thunder snow.”

So I wonder why people get so excited where there is a lot of snow on the ground. Sure, it looks nice when you look out at the campus at night and see everything just covered in powder (my Facebook feed always gets bombarded by these pictures; we get it, there’s a lot of snow on your car, the whole world doesn’t need to know).

People get excited about the prospect of snow days, but they never happen. The closest we get is when a professor sends us an email at 6 a.m. saying they don’t feel like shoveling their driveway so class is cancelled. My high school was also notorious for never having snow days, so much so that there were a couple occasions when my Mom made my brothers and I stay home so we wouldn’t have to walk to school. Your school has a problem if it encourages parents to force their kids to commit truancy.

Snow is just an annoyance to me. It’s annoying to walk through, and if ice is involved, that is even worse. Sometimes it even takes the form of hail, so your face will feel like it was scrubbed with sand paper.

So when we are lucky enough to get a mild winter in Oswego like it this year, I am more than satisfied. If you are disappointed that there has been little snow, remember that without snow you don’t have to shovel your car or driveway, it is easy to get to class, roads are a lot less hazardous and your house or dorm room isn’t under an inch of muddy water when you come back from class.

Maybe people like snow for the nostalgia of childhood, memories of snow angels and snowball fights and such. Since the latter is banned at Oswego State and the former will just cause passers by to stare at you, those options are not as feasible as they used to be. So even if you like excesses of snow for some odd reason, you should still enjoy weak winters when you can. They do not come often in New York state and nobody likes shoveling or falling on ice.