My Favorite (Super Cool) Memory at Arcadia

As graduation approaches, I have spent an immense amount of time reflecting. I think about all the memories I have collected here at Arcadia University. It is strange to think that at 18 years old, I made the choice to attend a school out of state. When I first got to campus, many people were so interested that I had decided to leave Florida for Pennsylvania. Honestly, I have spent half of my junior year and all of my senior year in Florida, and I would have traded places with any Pennsylvanian. It is fun to drink a hot coffee on a cold winter day. It is so magical to watch the leaves change color. 

I find myself thinking about my favorite memories, and one always makes me smile: My sophomore year, I went snow tubing for the first time ever. I have always been the person to overload my plate with activities, so that year I took on a research assistant position, internship, job, and a typical 16-credit schedule. To say the least, I always had something to do, and spontaneous adventures weren’t really in my vocabulary. (Side note: I want to acknowledge that productivity culture is very toxic, and I am better now about releasing the need to always have something to do and bask in my moments of rest.) 

On this day, I think something in my schedule was canceled, so I had a free day. My friends asked me to tag along for a trip to Camelback Mountain in the Poconos to go snow tubing. I love the cold, but as a Floridian, we have our limits—and I was really coming up with every excuse in the book to not have to be out in the cold for so long. Eventually, I realized that I should really seize the opportunity, so I agreed to join the trip! 

Now, don’t quote me—again, I am Floridian, so I may have heard wrong—but supposedly this was a record cold day. I was SO not dressed for the occasion. I thankfully had worn my snow boots, but all I had on was a sweatshirt, thick(ish) leggings, some fuzzy earmuffs, and a scarf. I was not prepared for the constant feeling of getting wet from the snow, so it was not fun walking around in slightly damp clothes. Also, as we walked uphill, I felt like it was so cold that my saliva was freezing as I breathed! This forced me to make an effort to breathe, but that did not stop me from laughing, jumping in piles of snow, and running back uphill after snow tubing down. 

There were so many moments when I wasn’t sure I could feel my toes, but I was having too much fun to pay it much attention. I am a little envious that people who live where there is snow get to snow tube regularly. Anytime I think about this memory, I wish that I could collect it in a little snow globe! The snow globe would have a mountain in the middle and little figurines of my friends and me laughing, and sliding down with tubes. 

This is my favorite memory at Arcadia.