There are so many things to love about spring. It’s lighter out later, the aisles are filled with easter candy at the store, they’re finally mowing the dead grass on Prexie’s. With the unpredictable spring weather in Wyoming, though, people have to wear an unfortunate amount of layers to campus each day.
I grew up in Oregon where the weather was as predictable as a bus schedule. Rain every day in the mid 40s for all of March and April. Here, I’m constantly looking out the window and checking my weather app to see if i really will need my puffy coat or if I’ll need to strip down to my t-shirt and jeans.
This Monday I woke up and it was close to 30 degrees with just a touch of wind. Cool enough to brave the walk to campus in just a sweatshirt. Boy, was I wrong. Later that afternoon I was cursing my past self for not bring a heavier coat and a hat to stay warm in the impromptu flurry across campus. It seems to me that students are faced with a lot of clothing challenges in the spring.
Do you pull a “that one guy who doesn’t think it’s cold” and wear shorts and flip flops to campus and pray the weather doesn’t take a turn towards cold precipitation? Or do you bundle up and take the chance of becoming a walking sauna going from class to class?
The daily struggle of spring weather in Wyoming is something to loathe. Getting my backpack ready for this week I pulled out three different hats, an extra pair of pants and gloves all packed just in case the weather changed. The sporadic heating and air conditioning in the buildings on campus doesn’t help.
Students may be perfectly comfortable, step into a building and start sweating buckets because the heat hasn’t been adjusted to take into account the slightly above freezing temperatures as opposed to the well below freezing winter temperatures. Some buildings will jump the gun and crank up the AC the moment thermometers read anything above 50 degrees.
Constantly putting on and taking off one or several layers between each class, study groups and other activities on campus becomes a real hassle. I know I don’t like lugging around anything that I don’t absolutely need to when I’m on campus.
While I may not be a huge fashion follower, I have to laugh at the spring collections in stores and online highlighting shorts, dresses and frilly pastel things I would never in a million years wear without a coat and beanie. I tried to find another pair of sweatpants at Walmart to continue staying warm through spring and they no longer had any in stock, but they had a whole rack of swimsuits just in time for spring.
Maybe I need a new town to live in where there’s a cinematic springtime with a little rain, sunny mornings where all I need is a light cardigan to go out and walk around. Maybe then I won’t be upset when I can’t find a pair of fuzzy pants to brave occasional snowfall turning into a more windy afternoon. While there are good things about spring here in Wyoming, the weather assuredly is not one of them.
