The following is everything I have to say about people who stopped wearing coats because “it’s spring” when it absolutely, most certainly, is not.

First, just why?? 

But on a more serious note, I recognize that people may believe it *feels* more like spring when you’re walking around in just a t-shirt, but I promise you it has the opposite effect. Spring is not a temperature, it’s an emotion, one that I’ll admit to be quite challenging right now, with the cold and the rain and the general grayness of the weather smothering us like a damp blanket thrown over the Earth ⁠— but it is, nonetheless, a feeling, a jovial sentiment of spring. Particularly when it’s sunny out (despite that blessed golden orb failing to radiate much heat), that feeling is achievable — just not while wearing a t-shirt. Spring means warmth and sun and happiness, and when the weather makes the latter two possible, a coat is a perfect way to supplement the lack of warmth and achieve all three to fulfill the requirements of getting a little spring in your step. 

With a t-shirt, however, one prioritizes a spring-like aesthetic over a true spring-like feeling and, in the end, resigns oneself to being cold and generally increasing other unpleasant feelings. Are we to be a campus that parades around in t-shirts while temperatures barely rise to the 40s? We are in Minnesota! Let’s not fight that fact but rather join together and reconcile that our spring may consist of puffy jackets, and that’s still valid. 

This brings me to my second point: even if one believes that wearing a t-shirt increases feelings of springiness (which I still maintain it doesn’t), is it really worth it? What, exactly, is spring worth? I like spring as much as the next person, probably more I dare say, but there is a point at which it’s just not worth it to pretend it’s the traditional spring temperature at the cost of warmth and happiness by refusing to wear a coat and pretending not to be cold.

However, I feel the need to acknowledge at this point that there is a small (miniscule, really) issue which I have yet to mention. There is, I will admit, a small (again, really more miniscule) portion of anti-coaters that makes a reasonable argument for not wearing coats: different people get cold at different temperatures. There are people, it is rumored, who can go out in this type of weather without getting cold. I personally cannot relate, as someone who always gets cold (side note: if anyone has advice for staying warm in Sayles or can convince someone relevant to make it warmer in Sayles, please let me know, I’m cold! But I digress).

Such individuals insist that it’s “not that cold out.” Now, I dislike that statement, as it is very much not true from the objective standpoint of reading a thermometer, but I must concede that their opinion is reasonable, as they acknowledge the subjectivity of their views and do not attempt to argue that other people should agree. That said, I believe the people who don’t currently need a coat to stay warm make up a ridiculously small portion of the people not wearing coats, and I suppose these people shouldn’t be judged for not wearing coats as long as they remember that their temperature related habits are non-representative.

The real problem, then, is the people who don’t wear coats because they “just don’t feel like it,” as one student so eloquently explained. This simply does not make sense. Do they not feel cold? I doubt it, as people without coats typically appear to be cold. The usual signs of shivering, shaking and frostbite confirm this. Perhaps they are unaware that they are cold due to not knowing what cold is, in which case I would like to offer some advice: cold = bad. It is a feeling that one experiences when they are not experiencing warmth, and it is generally unpleasant and should be avoided. It is easily solved by putting on a coat, which I would strongly recommend.

Anyway, coats are good when it’s cold out, I don’t understand how people don’t get cold but sure, I guess that’s a thing and please, if anyone can make Sayles warmer, help.