Rutgers Students Aren’t Akin to Recent Weather

Rutgers Students Aren’t Akin to Recent Weather

By Julia DeAngelo

Arms folded in annoyance, Emily Esposito stood shivering as she waited for a bus to class.

She decided it was better to go without a coat that gray morning, since the weather was supposed to hike 20 degrees that afternoon. Although she almost always regrets it, Esposito says it's better to face short-lived morning cold than to sweat in layers that afternoon.

Her strategy to combat bipolar temperatures begins with comfortability. On days she has to roll out of bed for morning classes, the first thing Esposito does is check the weather on her phone to prepare for either a good or bad day.

“As soon as I get up, I check my weather app.” Esposito said, “I know I’ll generally have a good day if the weather isn’t going to fluctuate, since it's easier to prepare for and not worry about.”

Like many of her classmates at Rutgers University, Esposito has grown impatient toward the seasonal changes. Some students appreciate how warm summer weather seems to be seeping into the fall, but when daily temperature varies an aggravation arises.

These frustrations stem from the unpredictability of weather patterns. During the transition into autumn, students tend to think that outdoor conditions jump from one extreme to the other too quickly.

Emma Gillis, a junior at Rutgers, explained how the flip flop weather negatively affects her daily routine. She expressed how alternating hot and cold, or in her words “uncomfortable,” weather dampens her overall mood and is a stressor she does not want.

“Inconvenient weather makes me anticipate a bad day, because of the hassle of getting

through the weather on top of the things I have to do.” Gillis said.

The temperature changes also affect many student’s physical health and well-being. Fluctuations of this kind can result in things ranging weakened immune systems and common colds to chapped lips.

Ethan Greenberg is also Rutgers student who has felt the physical consequences weather changes can have on the body. Although he was lucky to escape from a cold, Greenberg joked about stocking up on Chapstick and taking care of his weathered skin.

“I find that the temperature fluctuations we are currently experiencing do quite a number on my skin’s moisture balance.” He chuckled, “It seems really trivial, but having dry facial skin can burn and itch. It does not feel good.”

On the contrary, there are some scarlet knights who would rather bypass the short spurts of summer and skip to the cold. In their opinion, middle to late fall months have a certain air that's been missed out on.

James Sands is one of those people, and his longing for winter is main cause of his frustrations. Unlike the other students who dislike recent forecasts because of varying extremes, Sands simply wants the warm to end and the cold to begin.

“It should be colder.” Sands said, “It upsets me because fall is my favorite season and we’ve seemed to have lost it.”