Tests, public speaking, dating and communal showers, are just some of the most anxiety-inducing situations for college students but there is one thing we have not discussed… umbrellas. For some reason using umbrellas is a college student’s worst nightmare. Just imagine it, you wake up and it is raining cats and dogs outside and your project is due. Do you: a) Do you bring an umbrella? b) put it in a plastic bag? c) bolt to class? d) b and c? 

Most students would just bolt to class and be soaked out of the fear of using an umbrella and flipping inside out. As an umbrella user myself, I can confirm it is such a humbling experience. Using an umbrella in Oswego’s windy weather is like preparing for battle; there are only two ways it can go and the majority of the time, it ends with students being embarrassed as they wait for their umbrella to flip back the right way. When I was a freshman and this first happened, ironically I felt like a fish out of water; it felt like the equivalent of those dreams where you are naked in front of everyone. Everyone is watching your umbrella fail you and there is nothing you can do about it but hope it flips back up. 

Oswego’s wind has proved on more than one occasion that it is quite the worthy opponent for the average college student. It is something that becomes a rite of passage for incoming Lakers; maybe at one point you used to use an umbrella for the rain but once you come to Oswego prepare to part from your friend that keeps you dry. An umbrella is no match for the wind and the embarrassment college students get.

Photo by: Vojtech Okenka via Pexels