Around 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 4, flakes began to fall, slowly beginning to blanket the campus in a white layer of snow. As it began to pile up, students across campus started to venture out into the elements to experience the first big snow of the season. What followed next was nothing short of a joyful night that many students will remember for years to come.

The night started like any other, with students getting ready to wind down or lock in and do some work for the final push towards the semester’s end. Shortly after 8 p.m., laughing and yelling could be heard across campus as students began to slowly make their way outside, with many experiencing the snow for the first time.

“It was my first time ever experiencing snow,” Lauren Dworkin, a sophomore legal studies major, wrote in a survey put out to those commenting on the snow. “I am from the Bay Area, California and it didn’t snow during the semester last year so I was incredibly excited. I felt like a little kid again.”

Similarly, it was the first time food science and technology major LK had seen snow in a long time. “I was so excited, I haven’t seen snow since I was 5 because I’m an out-of-state student from Georgia. I’ve been waiting for snow all semester because I really wanted to go play,” LK wrote.

The brought back a sense of childhood and joy many had not experienced in a while amid the stress of finals. “I was super stressed for finals, so when I went out to play with my friends, it made me feel like a kid again and it was a core memory I’ll never forget,” wrote freshman biochemistry major Ermina Syed.

Others recognized the true beauty of the scenes that night. “It reminded me of what winter used to feel like instead of the stress of finals. The world is a beautiful place and we’re all kids at heart. College just gives us the freedom to be kids again,” wrote freshman theater and English major Ava.

Across campus, many students began playing in the snow, with many taking to snowball fights or building snowmen. “Me and my roommate built a snowman (the one with the bra that everyone reposted) and we joined the snowball fights and I rolled down a hill a couple times with other kids from Gorman,” wrote freshman education major Nora Gross.

On Orchard Hill, residents joined forces to create multiple large snowmen, with one looking over the entire hill. Even in the absence of actual sleds, students managed to make do with what they had, with some, like LK, using “a piece of cardboard.” Many of the residential communities were the site of massive snowball fights involving tons of students, with Southwest and Honors communities reportedly being the largest ones.

As the night went on and more and more people went out, it was clear that the snow had touched a truly impressive number of students in one way or another. When asked to describe the snow in one word, respondents had some common themes in mind. The most common response was “Magical,” with five respondents writing it, followed by “Whimsical,” with two, and then “Wonderful,” “Fantabulous,” “Joy” and “Uniting,” with one response each. All 11 respondents agreed that it was a good stress reliever amid the looming specter of finals week.

The next day, as the sun rose over campus, one would not have to look long in order to find evidence of the joy experienced the previous night, as snowmen littered campus and as social media was full of hundreds of photos and videos of the fun. But just as quickly as the snow came and went, students returned to their normal routines on Thursday as the snow began to melt.

One thing is for sure, however: many of those involved in the revelry will likely never forget the fun they had that night.

Dylan Podlinski can be reached at [email protected]