In light of
the election occurring today, I thought I would draw attention to an issue that
candidates should perhaps consider a priority now more than ever: global
warming. Now, I am not here to yammer on about this plant dying, that animal
changing, this place warming—I’m talking ‘bout the big one. You know her; you
surely don’t love her, the infamous Ms. Hurricane Sandy.
Taking a quick
detour to fall of 2011 and we arrive at freak storm number one, a.k.a., Snowpocalypse.
This storm consisted of several inches of snowfall the weekend of Halloween.
With all the leaves still on the trees, branches couldn’t support the weight
and well, what resulted was a whole lot of branches on a whole lot of power
lines. After 24 hours of huddling over cellphone light, the school administration
decided that it might be challenging to have school without power, so all
students were evacuated from campus. After an extended 5-day weekend, we came
back to school with the mindset this freak storm was an anomaly and a fun
college story.
Coming back to
the fall of 2012, we were graced with a hurricane people have deemed as,
“Frankenstorm.” After surviving the week
that ensued after hurricane Sandy, or Frankenstorm, it is safe to say that I
travelled 6 and a half hours to go to a school that really doesn’t like have
classes during the week of Halloween.
After hearing news of classes being cancelled, I packed my suitcase full
of very useless clothing that would prove to provide very little warmth and
comfort, and was on my way to a friend’s house in New Jersey.
Being in New
Jersey was great. After watching ten hours of movies within the span of two
days, we began to feel optimistic about maintaining power. With the wind
beginning to pick up a little outside, we decided it was time to watch the long
awaited Magic Mike, and then it happened. As quickly as Channing Tatum took of
his undershirt—the lights were off for good.
At first,
being without power was fun. Learning how to light the stove with a match,
having real face-to-face interaction without any buzzes or flashes and realizing
that everyone looks fantastic in candlelight were things that I really
appreciated during the storm. However—all of this got old, fast. I quickly came
to realize that none of us really knew how to entertain ourselves. With only
the cat version of monopoly and school textbooks in hand, we were doomed to
boredom. Luckily for us, this week fell over a certain sugar-filled holiday.
With Halloween being cancelled, we were allowed to dive into all of the
“fun-size” snacks, treats and candies until we couldn’t keep count of how many
we had ate.
All in all, I
had a fun week and it was nice not having to go to classes but it is safe to
say that I really don’t want classes to be cancelled during Halloween next
year. Although I do love wearing the same clothes for about a week and sleeping
in subzero temperatures, I don’t know how fun it’ll be a third time. More
importantly, I don’t want classes to be cancelled again because the amount of
Halloween candy consumed during these two chance breaks was definitely not
meant to happen a third time.
