The mood around campus right now is an anxious one and it is not because of the looming deadlines in classes. It is instead of the looming snow that just will not fall.
It has sleeted, rained and sleeted some more the past two weeks, as the temperature during the day sits around 40 degrees and the temperature at night dips towards freezing. Fulton has received snow, Watertown has received some, even Buffalo and Rochester have seen flurries fall from the past weekend’s cell. The question presents itself, when will it snow on the frozen tundra that is Oswego?
The anxiety that comes with the first snowfall is warranted. It has been at least seven or eight months since we last saw snow in Oswego and the colder temperatures make one desire the cold precipitation to fall around them. Also, the snow this time of year is historically lighter and still allows for travel around town and campus. It is most importantly, more pleasing to look at when you walk the campus. Covering the fall scars of brown grass, bare trees and nasty wind whipping between buildings.
The campus community needs to be patient though, as the text messages and direct messages in friendly group chats saying it is snowing have all been proven false. This anxiety might be the last wait for snowfall for many SUNY Oswego students. I am in this boat as well, as just this week I signed up for my last four classes as a student this upcoming spring. The wait for snow is similar to the wait for graduation. You know it is coming and you know it will be exciting, but it also brings doubt and a sudden flood of the past.
I am in disbelief at times that my years at SUNY Oswego are coming to an end this upcoming May, as my seventh of eight semesters as a student is going to be over in a few weeks leaving just one last metaphorical dance. As I signed up for classes and applied for graduation this past week, my mind started to race. I had memories of friends, classes and of course snow from the past three years.
I thought of my first class here at SUNY Oswego. It was a warm August morning and I had intro to playwriting, my creative writing elective class at 9:10 a.m. on a Monday. I remember sweating as I walked into Marano Campus Center and tried to find the second-floor classroom. The professor for the class was professor Korbesmeyer, a longtime employee of the college, who had several roles over his decades at the campus.
He walked into the class and provided us with our first lesson of the semester, it was in acting. As he stepped to the front desk, he had what appeared to be the class roster in his hand. As he started calling out attendance, he stopped suddenly and yelled out “SH*T!” The professor then ripped the paper and stormed out of the classroom. It was shocking and when he came back he had a smile on his face.
It was almost like he knew that he had to calm this room of freshmen’s nerves before their first-ever college class. It was a brilliant act that worked and from there on, it was just a class. No different than any class in high school.
Just because this coming semester will be my last, after the first day I make myself laugh out loud for whatever reason it may be. It will just be another semester. I will apply the tricks and skills I have learned from past ones to be successful. I will laugh with friends and focus on the newspaper and the games I will broadcast during the semester tirelessly. Then I will graduate and enter the world. Like the first snow, it will fall soon enough. We will laugh as we walk in it and treat it with the timeless joy that we always have treated the first snow with.
