I’m a little worried for winter. I like snow, I enjoy the holidays and I treasure spending time with friends, but I get cabin fever like crazy. The lack of sunlight combined with the cold sends me crawling back into my bed, but after a few days, I’m already bored. And since the weather outside is frightful, I’ll make the mistake of turning to TV. Before I know it, my winter begins to feel like a rotation of going to class, going to work and coming home to watch TV.

However, one day last J-term, I was sick and tired of the routine. I felt drowsy in class, unenergetic at work and lazy at home. A weather channel advised everyone to stay inside the next day because of how awful the forecast was going to be. My mom actually called me to tell me not to go outside.

But I was fed up with feeling fed up. So the next day, I bundled up and went on a walk. You know in adventure novels when the protagonist is in subfreezing weather and the narrator claims that when they spit, their saliva freezes halfway to the ground? I didn’t try it out, but it felt pretty close to that. But you know what? I felt great. I couldn’t really feel my face or my hands, but it felt fantastic to get out.

In a recent article on Aeon.com, environmental psychologist and neuroscientist Colin Ellard explored the effects of boring cityscapes on mental health. He warned that “studies of both extreme and moderate forms of environmental deprivation provide compelling evidence that boring environments can generate stress, impulsivity, lowered levels of positive affect, and risky behaviour.”

Colloquially speaking, you feel bleh.

When you have to bundle up to go outside, and you still shiver within a minute of stepping out the door, going to an event or location that you might not even enjoy hardly seems enjoyable. The sun sets early, and with it our energy goes down. The uninviting sky and our already tired bodies lead us to retire to the comfort zones of our bedroom, cozy den or any other place we like to curl up when the weather outside is frightful.

But get out.

Get some friends together to have dinner at a local restaurant. Poke around in some local stores. Take an Uber to a museum. Go to a Chinese restaurant instead of ordering in. JUST GO!

There’s no need to dump money and hours upon hours of your life into spontaneous adventures. But leaving the apartment/dorm/house in general is a great way to spend the day, even if the day is cold and dreary. The fresh air is still fresh air, even if there is no longer a summer breeze.

Jeffrey Langan can be reached at lang5466@stthomas.edu.