"So...what is college really like?"

I've been asked this questions for several years now by grandparents, small children, and educated professionals alike, and my response is generally consistent. Normal. I read, write, eat, and then read and write some more. (Mostly read.)

With the incredibly cold weather that started over the weekend, all classes were cancelled Monday and this morning, so I'm sure my aforementioned questioners are really confused now. I'd feel so cool if I could relate my college life to those hipsters with fabulously 'real lives' on GIRLS (kind of, it would be a little on the icky/TMI side) or the academic all-star with obscene amounts of time to be awesome and social Rory Gilmore, but in all honesty, it's just not that glamorous, which is fine. I guess.

Especially in the Midwest, a large portion of the school year takes place when the weather is so ungodly cold just going to class is an adventure. After several freeze-thaw sessions, the desire to go live it up in -10 air temp at a frat house with sweaty/chilly people seriously declines. You wake up in the cold dark and go to bed in the cold dark, and in general, your classrooms are kind of cold and kind of dark.

Now, don't get the idea that I go to some crappy, underfunded university. It's just the Minnesota reality.

So when school was cancelled, you know what I did? Pretty much the same thing per usual. I was confined to the indoors with copious notes and stacks of books, my fingers drying and cracking as paper wicked away any remaining oils and moisture my skin had managed to retain.

Again, read, write, eat, read and write some more. What I did yesterday, what I do everyday.

And let me tell you: It's the best. It's like an extended vacation, just with deadlines and grades. Ignore the sitcoms and feature films; academia is incredibly monotonous but insanely fun, and reading all day has become delightfully underrated, so now all my crazy fellow english majors are kind of hipsters by default.

So maybe we are the new GIRLS?

Photo: Abby Carlson Instagram