Winter Is Coming: The College Years

This story reminded me of something that happened during my college career.

The state of Michigan has two parts: a lower peninsula that gets pretty chilly north-Midwest weather, and the upper peninsula that gets freezing wind whipping down from Canada and massive amounts of snow. I grew up in the upper part, but was going to school in the lower part.

Freshman year, moving into the dorms, I met my roommate, who was really excited to be experiencing an American winter. He was already feeling kind of chilly. It was late August and over 80 °F (27 °C), so I asked where he was from and if he had a winter coat. Turned out he was from Jamaica, and he proudly showed off a light windbreaker.

Me: “Okay… First thing tomorrow, we’re heading down to the Army Surplus store and getting you a real coat, a hat, some gloves, and some boots.”

Sophomore year, new dorm, new roommate! And a similar story, except this time they were from Guatemala and didn’t even think to bring a windbreaker.

Army Surplus store trip for coat, hat, gloves, and boots. 

Junior year! I’m out of the dorms and into half of a duplex apartment with a shared living room and kitchen. I lived there for two years and had two different housemates over the duration, each of whom had transferred in from out of state.

The first one was from Miami, Florida and had never left their state before.

Army Surplus store trip.

The second was an international student from Hokkaido in northern Japan. Finally, somewhere that gets snow! But his folks were in the diplomatic service, so he’d grown up in Tahiti.

I provided a lot of business to that surplus store.