By alice truongThe Daily NorthwesternEvanston weather is as temperamental as a hormonal teenager wearing black makeup threatening to slit his wrists because nobody understands him. And it’s true. Nobody understands poor ol’ Evan.How could we?One moment, the town is happy and cheery, thereby making Northwestern students happy and cheery, with fabulous, great weather that almost – almost – makes you think for a moment that you were home in Southern California (or any other warm location, but places like Florida and Texas are hardly worth mentioning). The sun is shining, and there isn’t a rain cloud is sight. And yet, the next moment happy Evanston becomes weepy Evanston. Against all logic and preconceived notions of how weather works, it could be pouring within seconds, which is why to be safe, one must always be prepared with emergency umbrellas, snow boots, gloves and several changes of clothes to fit any weather temper tantrum.For anybody not from the Chicago area, this is terribly confusing and scary territory to be entering.Coming from a place where winter temperatures never dropped below 60, I was actually shivering even before Evanston had a chance to see any precipitation. Boy was it surprising when it snowed in October. Yes, October. As leaves were falling, so was this weird powdery white stuff. And to my dismay, it wasn’t something that would bring me to euphoria though some people do get pretty damn excited; you can hear crazed members of your NU community outside shrieking with delight as snow is falling throughout the night. While there was no opportunity for the snow to stick on the ground, it was certainly a shocker. What was the lesson? Be prepared. A sweatshirt isn’t going to cut it when you have to survive winters that frighten you to leave your dorm room when you contemplate whether or not going to a dining hall is worth losing a toe to frostbite. As the temperature dips from what I once thought was a freezing 60 to something in the 40s, then the 30s and eventually single digits and even the ever-terrifying negative numbers, it’s very apparent that a coat is the best friend you could buy, although that is arguable.And hold on to that coat. Even if it doesn’t snow late winter, wind chill is mean. Very mean. Negative 19 degrees mean. I think after a certain point, people should stop logging onto weather.com to get their hopes up. It’s not going to get better. Ever. The weather sucks, and we all just have to get used to it.Any glimmer of hope is just going to be squashed. Case in point: When we left for spring break this past year, it was starting to thaw – beautiful. It’s moments like snow thawing that you remember why life is worth living again – a symptom of SAD. But within days of returning from our rejuvenating week of relaxation to get over the last quarter and be gung ho for the next, it snows. Yes, within the last week of March, it snows. And this isn’t whimpy snow like early October powder. This is full-fledged-snowstorm-that-makes-you-wonder-if-starving-is-worth-being-warm snow. Again, this is late March. It’s a very WTF moment everybody shares. Hold on to that coat. There’s no point in bringing it home too early – or ever, really.The difference between E-town and the hormonal teenager is that while the teen will get past his black phase and grow up to be a suit, Evanston will never mature past that. Evanston will be nice for a bit but ultimately will be bitter, nasty and mean.Cheer up. You’re going to NU.Reach Alice Truong at [email protected].