The day before the snow day occurred for us here at SMU, I had my meteorology class and my professor told the class that it would not snow, and if it did, that it would not stick to the ground. Every weather station across Dallas predicted the exact same thing. No one expected that Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010, would break numerous weather records when it snowed over 12 inches in one single storm.
 

Never before has it snowed this hard since records began being kept. It was just so beautiful and mystifying to see so much snow here. No one ever thinks Dallas will get snow, and it has never had this much before. The annual average snowfall in Dallas is between two and two and a half inches, but in total last weekend we had 12.5 inches of snow. This felt so unreal. The last time I ever saw snow like that was when I went to Illinois to visit my grandparents for the New Year about seven years ago. Never would I imagine seeing Dallas Hall covered in snow, with a miniature snow-Dallas Hall in front of it.
 

Snow has an uplifting affect on people. The entire day, I felt completely and unconditionally happy. It was so much fun to see tons of people building snowmen of all shapes and sizes and the numerous amounts of snowballs thrown towards friends and fellow students. The moment class ended was the moment I stepped into the winter wonderland and joined all of the fun that had happened when I was in class.
 

I know normally that the main quad is relatively inactive unless people are moving to class; however, the snow brought almost everyone out there to utilize the large amount of space and snow. Everyone was bustling around in groups that seemed to overlap each other in the end. Almost every moment, someone had a snowball. So many snowballs were used that the ground went from a blanket of snow into a pile of ice because everyone was running around, hoping to blindside a friend or run away from an enemy’s fire. It was an epic duel with everyone against everyone else. I enjoyed being pelted by snow while serving to protect a snow fort that others had made.
 

In addition to all of the chaos at the main quad, it was nice to see all of the snow remain peaceful in some areas, such as the soccer fields and the track. It was like someone covered them with a large, soft blanket of ice. I could not help but be happy with such a beautiful sight in front of me. I loved seeing SMU covered in white.
 

One of the added bonuses of snow was the cancellation of classes on Friday, which meant I could just sleep in and not worry about a thing Friday. I finally had a day to recoup from the stresses of college life.
 

The only complaints I had with the snow coming down happened when it stopped. Snow is so beautiful when it falls, but it is ugly when it melts. It does not melt evenly, and many snowmen remained scattered across campus for days. It was sad to see all the slush of melted snow that had been a blanket the day before. I was even sad when I saw the damage the record snow caused to the trees as they were left in shambles because of the weight of the snow.
 

However, the day the snow fell was the happiest day in a long time for me.

Bryan Manderscheid is a freshman engineering major. He can be reached for comment at [email protected]