Dionte Berry
Features Editor
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The roads may have been iced over and online classes may have still been in session along with nearly single digit temperatures but that did not stop students from having fun.
As snow was falling, students and Murray locals took advantage of many of the hills on campus to go sledding.
Students were sledding down the hills in front of the Curris Center, on Cutchin Soccer Field and behind Springer Residential College.
Among the sledders was Katie Newell, junior agronomy major, who saw the weather as a rare chance to have fun in the snow.
“I actually have been really enjoying the snow,” Newell said. “I know it can be difficult being snowed in but I feel like opportunities like this only happen once or twice in a lifetime, so might as well make the most of it.”
Newell was sledding with her friends and for them it was something so spontaneous that they didn’t even come with a sled.
“My friends and I used a piece of cardboard and a piece of plastic we found to go sledding,” Newell said. “We basically just showed up to the hill and found the items just laying around so we thought we would just go for it.”
One of Newell’s friends, Hanan Stiff, freshman elementary education major, also thought it was great to take advantage of the snow.
During the winter Murray may get snow, but it’s rarely enough to even make a snowball with. Having ankle deep snow, Stiff was happy to bear the cold to experience this weather oddity.
“I love the snow,” Stiff said. “It’s my favorite type of weather, and we thought that sledding would be a memorable activity for us to do.”
Along with Stiff and Newell, Jacqueline Forys, sophomore middle school education major, was hitting the slopes in front of the Curris Center.
“The snow makes me feel like I’m back at home sliding down the large hill that is in my backyard,” Forys said. “I was a little homesick the week of the snowstorm, but whenever I went sledding with my friends it was like I was a kid again.”
Forys is from Greenville, Illinois, which is north of Murray where snowy winters are far more common, so it was a little taste of home.
Despite the fun outside, there was still work to be done. With the boom of Zoom, snowdays seem to not exist anymore.
“Since turning to remote classes it has been extremely difficult for me to focus and apply myself,” Forys said. “I was also tired of being stuck in my room doing one class after another.”
Getting out and playing in the snow gave students a break from the repetitive school and Zoom cycle.
It was important for Forys and her friends to go out and take a break from that cycle.
“It’s difficult being stuck inside doing classes all day,” Forys said. “That’s why it was so important for us to get out and have fun in the snow.”