Crunch, crunch crunch. The sound of boots lightly compressing the white carpets stretching across the ground travels softly in the frigid air.

Except it’s not, because there is no snow to speak of in the first place!

Right about now, you’d expect there to be at least a few inches on the ground, but beyond a few days where we’ve been teased with flakes, the white stuff has stayed away.

As a Rochesterian, I am very much acquainted with the weather of the Great Lakes region.

While hardly predictable in the slightest, we can get some great snow.

One of the things I used to look forward to in high school was the inevitable snow day where classes would be canceled and the roads would be shut down.

Snow days were always special days to be cherished due to the disruption of the normal class schedule (for anyone wondering, it’s not likely you’ll get a snow day in college, but keep your fingers crossed).

Classes canceled or not, there’s always a lot to look forward to with the snow.

You can go out and have snowball fights. You can build a snowman (maybe of Luke the Laker).

After you’ve had your fill of frozen frolicking, you can head back to your dorm and have a nice cup of hot chocolate.

On the flip side of the fun, you do need to be concerned about the quality of the roads when driving. Also, no one likes snow shoveling.

Mercyhurst becomes a different campus in the winter weather.

Old Main in particular looks quite good with some snow on it. Speaking of which, that new tree up by Old Main would look stellar with some piles of snow in its branches.

One of my favorite memories of my freshman year was taking a nighttime walk with some friends across campus and up the snow-covered path to the Sisters of Mercy House.

There’s hardly anything as picturesque as a landscape dotted with snow.

If you need an example of this, simply look to the painting by my great-great Uncle Herb Beard in Old Main of the school in the winter time.

For everyone hailing from states or countries that seldom or never get snow, you’ve missed out on one of the best parts of winter.

How do you celebrate Christmas or any other equivocal holidays without a winter wonderland?

Perhaps it is the mainstream American culture that has projected this viewpoint onto me, but these are staple features of Christmas that I’ve grown up with.

Halloween is accompanied by the leaves changing and the wind chilling.

Easter sees the flowers reblooming.

It’s somewhat humorous to think that perhaps the most iconic environmental feature of a holiday is perhaps the least guaranteed.

I’ve had Christmases where the ground is as bare as can be.

Then again, I’ve also seen snow on Halloween and even in May and late August (back to that “Great” Lake weather).

I’m not asking for a 2015-style 7-foot Buffalo blizzard to hit Erie, but I’d like to at least have something to get me in the winter spirit. Can’t we end the semester with some fluff? I’m not hoping to

be able to go sledding down Briggs Avenue, but I wouldn’t mind it if it happened!