You call it Cold. I call it Cool.

For 8 months I have been asked to make North Bay and Nipissing University my new home. Being a student in the Bachelor of Education program I have been put into a classroom of 40 or so other students who I have begun to view as my extended family. In my program I have a variety of classes and while the teachers change, the students do not. My classmates are the same everyday and in this environment we begin to learn about each other very quickly.

I can imagine that this may be a scary thought. People are going to get to know about me? I know some of you are thinking that you would resist and hold back from others. But, whether you like it or not this program is designed to have students open up about who they are and trust in one another to succeed as educators.

This is where our winter walk comes into play. While friends and family back home will often talk about how bad the weather must be and that they hope I am staying warm. I often find myself defending the cold weather and the plentiful amounts of snow. The other day I was introduced to how to integrate my surrounding area into education. My section, or my new family, went for this long walk along the maple trail and were asked to think about our senses as we walked through the snowy forest trail.

We all took the opportunity to take pictures, have snowball fights, and roll around in the snow. It was a day where we were technically at school, but we had to opportunity to play around and enjoy the snow. When we returned to class we were asked to write a poem about how we felt outside. The following in what I composed:

I heard the trees crackling,
Like lumber burning bright.

I felt the bitter cold,
Frigid as the Yukon night.

Sprinkles of snow fill up my nose,
As I envision my winter prose.

The taste of accomplishment within my grasp,
A cool winter breeze begins to rasp.

Visions of grandeur,
I had to gander.

For some, living in city with a lot of snow like North Bay may be too much to handle, but it is days like today that teach me to embrace your surroundings for what they are. Some call North Bay cold, but I call it cool...