In case you’ve literally never left your closet since the start of the semester, it’s been a brisk January weather-wise here at Yale. We’ve burrowed our way out of a welcome-back snowstorm, recreated the Oregon Trail during a laughably miserable “wintry mix,” and, as of 6:00 am this morning, were enjoying the distinct pleasure of temperatures dipping below zero. Adding wind chill brings it down to -14 degrees Fahrenheit. For you Celsius nutters, that’s -25 degrees with wind chill, which is just altogether way too many numbers below zero. As someone who, like most of you, is not a backcountry Canadian, hibernation is looking more and more like a viable option.

For those of you, however, who do decide that hibernation might be more of a grade-killer than you’re really up for, keep hanging in there, because the next issue of the YDN Magazine is on its way to save you from your winter doldrums (or, you know, something like that). In it, I’ve got a personal essay on being cold, drawn from the extensive wells of my experience as a resident of the igloo-besotted town of Washington, D.C. Over the last year or so, I’ve been subjecting myself to a number of experiments involving the cold — walking barefoot on frost, doing homework outside in February, spraying myself intermittently with a hose for three straight hours of a late November afternoon (okay, that was not so voluntary). I’d recommend you try them, but it’s, like, really really cold outside, and frostbite is a major buzzkill. Just walking to class is good enough.

Look out for the next issue of the Mag in early February.