Welcome to The Phoenix’s weekly digest. Every week during the quarter, you can expect our writers’ takes on some campus happenings.

This week, David Wang offers a timely case for the Winter quarter.

Here’s a hot take for this cold week: Winter quarter is the best quarter at UChicago. Tough sell, I know—there’s so much to hate. The short days, the black ice, the biting chill… it can really feel like Mother Nature hates you during weeks like this. But every cloud has a silver lining. Here are fifteen reasons why Winter quarter is the best quarter on campus.

1. It builds character. Kids these days don’t appreciate how good they have it. That’s right, I’m talking about you! You need to learn toughness and resilience, you snowflake.
2. You can always dress appropriately. There is no such thing as dressing too warmly on a 0-degree day. But on a 60-degree day, you can easily wind up just slightly too cold or too hot. And when it’s boiling over, you can only get so naked.
3. It makes entering any building with internal heating feel wonderful. On a nice day, the Reg feels like a prison. In weeks like this, the Reg becomes a blessed sanctuary. Praise be.
4. There are fun things to do if you know where to look. There’s Kuvia, ice skating, and seeing University Theater’s annual musical, to name a few. But don’t worry about missing out on the fun either, because… 
5. Hardly anyone’s having fun, so no FOMO! 
6. It gets better. As your workload gets worse, the weather gets milder. Contrast this with Fall quarter, where the weather mirrors your descent into drudgery.
7. It doesn’t get too good. Nothing hurts as much as a warm, sunny day spent entirely in the library. Unlike in Spring quarter, that will never happen.
8. Your parents will respect you. My mom keeps bringing up how she used to cross a snake-infested jungle to get to school. Wait until I lose some toes to frostbite, that’ll show her!
9. You get to brag about your cold tolerance. You might have absolutely no cold tolerance, but they don’t know that.
10. The Midway is free of goose droppings for most of the quarter. Any that are there are frozen completely solid.
11. No mud on the ground. Ever ruined a pair of sneakers by stepping into mud on the quad? Never gonna happen when it’s below freezing.
12.  It brings the community together. Misery creates a sense of solidarity. We should do this more often!
13. Every sunny day becomes a blessed, joyous relief. You only learn to appreciate something when it is taken away.
14. It’s so pretty. From time to time, it can be nice to remember how gorgeous our campus is. I think the quad is prettiest in winter at dusk, when the trees are strung with lights and the walls of the buildings give off a faint blue.
15. It makes my job easier. No one would read an article called “15 Reasons Why Spring Quarter is the Best,” now would they?

Stay tuned for next week’s edition. In the meantime, if you have any thoughts, disagreements, or words of support, we want to hear them! Write to us at thechicagophoenix@gmail.com.