The transition from fall excitement to the winter grind is having a noticeable impact on Williston students.
Many students, whether they are athletes, artists, or writers, find that snow is not the only thing that falls upon campus after the return from fall break. A certain mood seems to spread among students as the four-month stretch, from December to March, begins.
“Winter depression” has been popularized on social media, specifically TikTok. It refers to the constant exhaustion and gloominess most students start to experience after returning from fall break. Athletics, schoolwork, and the weather appear to heavily influence students’ winter mood.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, symptoms of winter depression, or, formally referred to as Seasonal Affective Disorder, are overeating, social withdrawal, and oversleeping but still feeling constantly tired.
The term for these seasonal feelings was developed in 1984 after being used in a paper by the National Institute of Health in Maryland. SAD is extremely common as it is found in millions of Americans, but it is found to begin in young adulthood and is more common in women than men. It is also more common in people who live in Northern areas where there are shorter daylight hours during the winter.
There are some great events during the winter that you can’t experience during the fall and spring seasons: hockey games, basketball games, the holiday excitement, and the winter banquet with desserts at the Hill’s house. So, why the collective chilly mood?
Daryn Fox, a junior from Bermuda, prefers spending time outside in the fall weather rather than winter.
“In the fall I’m carefree and spend more time outside with my friends and it makes it so much more fun when you can hang out outside and inside,” she said. “Coming into the winter I’ve been excited to be in a different afternoon program but I’m not excited for being forced to be inside all the time because of the cold. It also sucks walking from the chapel to schoolhouse when it’s freezing.”
The weather in Bermuda on Wednesday, December 11th, was partly cloudy with a low temperature of 67 and a high of 73 degrees, compared to Massachusetts’ downpour the whole day, with a high of 60 degrees and a low of 30 degrees.
The weather is a big factor in students’ moods throughout the school year, but it’s not just the temperature.
Alice Brashares, a junior from Berkeley, Calif., is still adjusting to the daylight schedule during the east coast winter.
“I definitely feel a little more tired and sleepy than last season,” she said. “I sleep a lot more now too because it gets dark really early and back home it usually takes a little longer to get darker, even in the winter.”
Besides the obvious, the temperature and daylight, the spike of pressure that follows a change in sports and a new trimester impacts students as well.
Catie Putt, a junior from Norfolk, Mass., reveals that playing your main sport in the winter is fun but doesn’t release the pressure.
“This trimester I feel more nervous and tired,” she said. “I have my main sport so more of my time is devoted to practice and games. My moods are very fluctuating, I think depending on how I play in my sport. I love winter and hockey, but the cold sometimes is too much for me and hockey doesn’t give me much free time which is often hard to find time to hang with friends.”
