Snow sports give us new reasons to procrastinate

It was late Wednesday night. As usual, I had way too much work to do, and on top of that, I had no desire to do it. I am one of the world's greatest procrastinators, and Wednesday night was no different. However, on this particular day, in this particular month, in this particular season, my reasons for not wanting to do work were totally different than normal. Normally, I would rather be watching a movie, reading a book (non-school related, of course), listening to music or other more social activities. This night, though, I didn't want to do work because of a word that had been floating around campus all week:

Snow.

That's right, snow.

You see, I come from North Carolina, where it really does not snow that much. Hell, if there is even so much as a dusting of snow on the ground, we used to be let out of school. But that snow usually did not come until late January or February. So unlike some of my friends who come from more snowy states, I am not used to seeing snow, and certainly not snow in December.

So last night, I stayed up late, not doing work like I should have been, but seeing if the snow would come.

Most people would probably look at me rather strangely, because all that snow really means is that it's really cold and wet outside and that it's miserable to walk to class. After being here at Princeton for three years now, I totally understand them — it does make walking to class miserable. Never have my feet been so cold when walking to class through the snow. And yet, my excitement was still so great when I woke up this morning and so the white stuff coming down. Why, you might ask?

Simply put, snow makes for sports that are simply more fun than any that are out there now.

Snowball fights are by far the greatest sport man has ever created. Where else can you build forts and demolish your opponent by pelting them with a snowball — something that does not necessarily hurt the target? Nowhere.

I didn't grow up having too many snowball fights, but when we did, they were battle royales. We used to build up these huge forts, stock up on snow balls (including the occassional ice ball, but that's a different story) for hours and then, at the agreed upon time, start bombarding each other's forts.

Snow can also do another amazing thing — it improves upon already existing sports. The classic here is, of course, snow football. The NFL can enjoy snow games, so why shouldn't we as well?

Football in the snow is a thing of magnificence. You can play tackle because all you're doing is burying your opponent in a pile of snow. More running plays are called because everyone's hands are so numb they can't catch the ball on passes. And the snow makes it so slippery that it basically negates people's running ability and evens the playing field so that everyone can play.

I learned two new sports yesterday walking home from class, which made the misery so much more worth it. The first is snow frisbee. It seems to work much the same way as regular frisbee, except you fall down a lot more.

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And then there were some brilliant guys out in front of Dod Hall who appeared to be making up a new sport that I guess could be called snow piling. They had brought out a shovel and made a big pile of snow. And as I was passing, it looked like they were going to actually dive into it.

Many people may complain that the snow simply makes life so much more miserable for us college students, so I write this piece for you. Get out of your warm dorm rooms and get outside — seize the day! The snow is waiting, and it won't be here forever.