Freezing Freshman

• Madison Beckstead / Scroll Staff
• scrolllifestyle@byui.edu

For many, it’s tough to be a student in Rexburg this time of year. Besides the comic relief provided by watching high-heel wearing or Converse-clad students attempting to stay upright on patches of ice, most students at BYU‑Idaho would agree that there are not many warm and fuzzy feelings that accompany the thought of an Idaho winter. Even those born and bred in the arctic-like tundra of Idaho can be heard groaning about the cold.

But some are more unaccustomed to the bitter frost, biting winds and thigh-high snow banks than others. For those who are experiencing their very first Idaho winter, turned-up thermostats and dreams of springtime may be the only thoughts keeping them going.

I hate the snow. I just want it to be gone, said Kaitlyn Wadsworth, a freshman from Las Vegas, Nev. It’s so bad. I don’t see how anyone can enjoy it.

While the average precipitation during February in Madison County is only about one inch, the infamous Rexburg winds and freezing temperatures don’t spell out fun for many of those who are accustomed to warmer weather.

In Kansas, if we get half an inch of snow, it’s a snow day, said Monica Hooton, a junior from Olathe, Kan. Here, if buses with tractor tires and chains can drive through the storm and still get to school within three hours, it’s no dice for the poor Idaho students.

Some students prepared for the cold weather by buying winter clothing but found that the winter weather was even worse than anticipated, Wadsworth said.

In preparation for her time in Rexburg, Wadsworth went shopping for what she thought would keep her warm.

I purchased some jackets and sweaters and stuff and I thought, Oh, I’ll be OK, Wadsworth said. But when I got here I realized that I was definitely not OK. I had to go out and buy all these poofy jackets. I don’t think they even make anything back home that would keep me warm here.

Darren Kneib, a freshman from Owasso, Okla., recently returned to Rexburg from serving a mission in Panama, and finds himself battling, and sometimes cursing, the elements as well.

When I got here, I had to get off the airplane onto the runway to walk into the airport, Kneib said. [The weather] hit me like a ton of bricks. I had a suit on but it was still so cold. From the time I stepped off the plane, I was shivering for weeks. I was always cold.

Students may take comfort in the fact that the coldest month is behind them. December averages out as the coldest month for the Rexburg area, averaging a low of 10 degrees, according to www.weather.com.

Still, as Hooton puts it, Once it gets in the negative degrees, it doesn’t really matter anymore. I don’t even bother to see what the temperature is. I just know that my body will be numb by the time I get to class, even with a parka.

Although it may seem an impossible feat to some, generations of BYU‑I and Ricks College students have been surviving the storms. Whether by packing on layers of clothes or finding a special someone to keep warm with, making it through an Idaho winter is manageable.

I’m getting more used to it, but it’s still no fun, Wadsworth said.