On Friday January 14, Rattan West, Vice President of the Laurier Ski and Snowboard Club, organized a snowball war through Facebook because she wanted to turn her ‘winter hater’ friends into winter lovers like herself.
“I kept thinking that if we could just look at winter the way we did when we were kids,” says West, “then [we] can love winter because everyone loved winter when they were a kid.”
Although 168 Laurier students RSVP’d as attending, the event consisted of only a few of West’s close friends.
“I don’t think they are all going to show up,” said West before the event. “I think a hundred people were like ‘snowball fight, sounds like fun.’ Accept.”
Turns out that was exactly the case. Either students liked the idea in theory, or just forgot about it, because the “war” was more of a scuffle.
Too bad for the winter haters because the following day, Brantford received another 5 cm of snow – enough to slow traffic in the downtown.
But not all students are sticks in the snow.
“If it’s snowing this much in [my hometown], then I’m going to go snowboarding!” says second year student, Alex Pinhero. “I like the snow and I love winter. It’s one of the best seasons of the year.”
Students seem divided on this issue but they can’t really complain. Brantford gets approximately 100 centimetres less snow per season then the Laurier campus in Kitchener-Waterloo and significantly less than some of the northern educational institutions like the University of Carleton, the University of Ottawa and Nipissing University.
In any case, this year is a La Niña year, which means that we can expect a relatively cold, dry winter in North America, when other parts of the world will be experiencing excess flooding.
So for all you winter haters out there, the best advice for you is to bundle up, and to throw a snowball or two, because it’s not over yet.