Well, it’s here, it is finally here, and there is nothing we can do about it. Or is there?

Just because the snow has fallen on the autumn of our discontent doesn’t mean there is a reason for us to be filled with malcontent.

Many of us who have been here for two, three, four, five or six years have seen it all before and we know what to expect. Just because it is cold, and the heat in the dorm rooms is either working too much or not enough, does not in any way, shape or form mean we have to get upset about it.

Just think about all the people you will see trying to climb that dreaded hill by Alumni Hall and the Music Building. Just think of all the people who will remind us of Jack and Jill as they go tumbling down the hill when it becomes covered in ice.

Or better yet, just fantasize walking with scarf ready, head down, armed with Chapstick, through the immense wind tunnel known to all outsiders as Welch Avenue.

Maybe you are a seasoned veteran and have great memories of ice storms where umbrellas did no good and canceled class days when even Cy-Ride had problems making it to campus.

Many a Cyclone male has had his mucous-laden mustache frozen as he made the jaunt across the frozen tundra of the quad between Curtiss and Beardshear.

Stomping the snow off your boots and shaking the ice from your parka as you take a seat in that 8 a.m. Psych 101 class is a terrific memory so many of us share. Be careful not to slip on the wet floor.

Some of us have been there, while others have yet to experience it; it’s called “winter in Ames” and it is an Iowa State tradition. It’s what separates the Cyclones from the Hawkeyes.