Winter Blues or Campus Views?

It’s that time of the year again. It’s almost always that time of the year in Toronto. Winter. The cold, dark, and short days where everything from your boots to your bag are covered in salt stains from walking around in snow. The midterms, assignments, presentations, and labs – all seem to coincide with the worst of these days. Personally, it wasn’t a great week. I even got splashed with muddy snow by a driver as I waited for the streetcar at Queens Park Station. I didn’t know that was a thing. I thought it only happened when it rains. Who would think a car would be speeding in the middle of a snow storm? This was all after a weekend full of nothing but studying, working, and barely sleeping. It was like the cherry on top. I had gone through every level of anger, frustration, and sadness from Monday through Friday. Despite it all, as I trekked through several inches of snow every day to campus and then back home (to Milton), one thing always brought me a little bit of joy. Instead of looking down at my black (now white) boots, I looked up. It was one of those moments you see on screen where the world seems to stop for a brief moment. The snow that had caused me so much inconvenience - made me miss important appointments, made me late on several occasions, and just absolutely crushed my energy and motivation -  was also undeniably peaceful. Beautiful even. Despite scrambling between assignments, tests, work, health, and social life, the one thing that always makes me feel better is how beautiful our campus is. It’s even more appealing when the unique types of buildings appear to be unified in a white blanket of snow. At U of T, sure, I might be having a breakdown in some corner, but at least it’ll always be a nice-looking corner. So of course, the day I decide to embark on my journey across U of T to take a few campus shots for this blog post, it snows. All. Day. Long. Regardless, I walked around to find some of these views to share here in hopes of encouraging more of us to appreciate what a beautiful place we have our breakdowns in – hopefully enough to make us not have those anymore. Hopefully enough for us to focus on the little things that give us joy. Join the conversation! Follow @UofTStudentLife on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for chances to WIN some cozy prizes, and spread the joy at U of T using the hashtag #JoyAtUofT.