By Hannah Lee Leidy

We’ve all heard it, seen it and started to believe it: February is the worst month. Undoubtedly, the cold temperatures and gray skies are less than ideal. However, I think we should pause and ask ourselves, Is it February that’s bad or the mentality surrounding it? Complaints about February prevail throughout the campus, making them hard to avoid. With so many people complaining, it is easy to assume the mindset that we should hate this month, too. Aside from the dreary weather and increasing workloads, what is there to dislike? I’ve tried searching for a reason beyond the two listed above, with little success. Spring break is in a week. Valentine’s Day left us with warm and fuzzy feelings and many on-campus groups provide ways to beat the February blues.

Each week, different clubs and groups at Kenyon advertise fun activities open to the entire community. The Winter Blues concert was held this past weekend. Weaver Wednesdays and Wednesday trivia at the Village Inn provide mid-week enjoyment. Several plays are currently holding auditions and performances. The opportunities are endless. Sure, we could spend the month hiding in our dorm rooms while enjoying a bottle of February whine. That would be easy. However, when we look back on February in a few months, will this activity prompt us to exclaim, “Wow, that was fun. I really enjoyed February”?

Hopefully, your answer is “No.” It sounds cliché, but this month, like most moments in life, is what you make it. It can be awful or awesome, depending on whether or not you let the idea that February is a miserable month drain away all the fun. An alternative could be to view this month like any other. I would even go so far as to argue that February might be a better month than the average. It’s only 28 days, the myriad of activities provided is larger than average and there are only eight days until spring break. This should be a month of celebration. OK, maybe that is taking it a little too far, but I think I made my point. We need to start saying no to the February mentality. My theory that the more complaining we hear about something, the more we start to believe it is reversible: the less complaining we hear about something, the less we’ll let it bother us. Get up, put a smile on your face and go out and take advantage of what February offers. As Willie Nelson said, “Once you start replacing negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.”

Hannah Lee Leidy ’18 is undeclared from Elizabeth City, N.C. She can be reached at leidyh@kenyon.edu.