Every Northwestern student knows the winters in Chicago are harsh. This year is an exception. This winter is not just harsh, it’s brutal. Record-cold temperatures make this winter uniquely difficult for students. But cold weather should not keep us from enjoying our Winter Quarter. We should make sure this winter is our best yet with a few easy tips:

1. If possible, avoid those early classes. Temperatures can rise significantly between 8 a.m. and noon. If you somehow manage to avoid morning classes, you might even find yourself walking to class in above-zero weather!
2. Make some hot chocolate. This is what dorm microwaves are for. Or, if hypothetically you had one of those illegal dorm room coffee makers, you can always wash it out, leave out the coffee beans and mix some hot chocolate powder into the hot water.
3. Invest in a scarf. Scarves really take the edge off of sub-20 degree weather. Fifteen degrees can almost feel like 30!
4. Figure out your food situation. Living in Allison Hall, Foster-Walker Complex, Sargent Hall, Elder Hall or 1835 Hinman is a good way to stay fed and warm. If Evanston is a source of food for you, maybe you can order in. Cheesie’s and Wings Over offer good late-night food delivery (Sorry Chipotle.) Worst case scenario, you can always get a banana from a dining hall to save for later.
5. When you’re bored during the summer, you go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. During the winter, you can always stay inside and sleep.
6. There’s always TV. And in the meantime your floor can have a debate about what to watch in the lounge. On a side note, if your parents took away your Netflix password so you could study more, tell them you need it for academic purposes (Someone in my hall actually did this.)
7. You can always spend your time complaining about how cold it is outside, how much work you have and well, everything else. A favorite NU pastime is to complain about how much work we have. So why not try it?
8. Snowball fights in the quad are another favorite pastime.
9. You can wait at a corner and catch people who fall down when they slide on the ice. Like really, this is necessary. Someone needs to do it. If you can’t be warm, at least feel like a Good Samaritan.
10. Enjoy the positive temperatures while you have them. Anything over zero is basically spring weather here, so enjoy!
11. Finally, it’s NU, so when in doubt, you can always study more. Maybe if you spend all of the time you would normally spend outside studying, you can pull off a B-minus in Chem this quarter. Nah, the average will probably just move up and the curve will leave you with a C again if you’re lucky.

NU’s weather may not seem to be a recipe for fun at first. But follow some of these steps and you can be sure to make this winter your best one yet.

Matt Gates is a Weinberg freshman. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you want to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected].