It’s winter time and it’s freezing. You walk into class and see people shaking from the dropping temperature. Texas citizens are affected by the cold months because we are all used to the heat. It’s a hard time for many and students can begin to struggle throughout these months. 

We have an open campus which makes coming to school a continuous exposure to weather. Students are under stress at school already, but does the weather affect their school life even more than usual when it’s cold?

“I just really don’t want to come. I just feel like my muscles are sore, like I just don’t want to move. I would just rather stay at home in the bed,” sophomore Carrington Dawnyel said. “I just feel like less people have motivation for school during the cold months, nobody wants to get out of their bed because it’s cold, and then you just are miserable when you come to school because it’s cold outside. We have an open campus, so everywhere you go you have to go outside.”

Motivation and emotions feed off of each other and can create bad habits. A cycle of feelings or those habits can loop. The weather can make you feel a certain way that can change your whole day, week or month. 

“I’m more angry,” junior Shelby Ross said. “I get to my classes faster though because I don’t want to stand outside, and I don’t want to talk to as many people. It makes me want to sleep more in class, and I know there’s also seasonal depression that also contributes to that.”

Along with those emotions your physical health can decline as a student exposed to the cold on the daily. You can begin to lack the motivation to take care of yourself by being active.

 “When you stay inside because it’s cold, you get sad, you get depressed, and then you don’t want to go outside,” Dawnyel said. “You’re not getting your vitamin D so then you’re just in seasonal depression.”

Inside the classroom, temperature can drastically vary from extremely cold to hot. 

“I think the school could fix their thermostats in the classroom,” Ross said. “So the school isn’t 80 degrees and the other half isn’t 40 degrees.”

Clothes also change as the weather changes. Everyone bundles up just to make it through the school day with hoodies and blankets.

“I wear sweatpants, sometimes pants under pants, jackets on jackets and hoodies,” Dawnyel said. “I usually take teachers’ blankets out of their classrooms because it’s still cold.

Overall, students are affected by the weather in plenty of ways. While it is hard to stay positive, remember it’s temporary.   

“I just really don’t like the fact that we have an open campus like it’s so cold for no reason all the time,” Dawnyel said. “I can’t even go to the bathroom because I don’t want to get out of my seat because it’s so cold outside.”