It is a bitterly cold weekday. The wind is blowing and the sky is a tepid shade of wintery gray. Flecks of ice and snow fall silently as you and your friends pile into a car, bundled up, towels in hand. As the car pulls up to North Beach, you start to get butterflies in your stomach. You feel the frigid air whipping across your bare legs and imagine the water biting at your face. The ice’s indifferent reflection of the murky silver sky beckons you forward.  Quickly, you all strip down to your bare necessities. Someone starts counting, but the only sound you hear is the rapid thumping of your heart. In an instant, it all happens – you dash through the first layer of ice and into the deathly cold water. You try to scream but your animal instinct takes over. Before you can even think about what just happened, you are back on land clutching your towel for dear life. Hot damn, doesn’t that sound like a rush? Well, I can assure you it is, because for the past two months, my friends and I have been doing just that – diving into our dear Lake Champlain. A group of my friends and I made a New Year’s resolution to jump into Champlain every month of this year. January was not bad, aside from the thin layer of ice that left me with a few cuts. February, on the other hand, was brutal. We smashed through five inches of ice with a giant log and had to submerge into just two feet of water. I have to say, though, both times have been totally worth it. Not only have these brief dips help to temper me to the bitter Vermont winter, but they also make me feel more alive than I ever feel sitting in a lecture hall. I’m not just bragging about doing something stupid or saying everyone should just go jump in the lake when it is freezing. That would be dangerous, and more importantly, unoriginal. What I am saying, however, is that everyone should take advantage of this time in life to do something you never thought you could or even wanted to do. It doesn’t have to be groundbreaking or useful, simply fun and interesting.  I step into Bailey/Howe and see the thousands of bored and defeated faces, I want to stand up and yell at everyone to just take a break and go on an adventure! My sister once told me, high school is for learning, but college is for becoming an interesting person. This is the time in our lives when we can do literally whatever we want and have the will and the way to do it.  So have your lake and jump in it, too. Quit spending all of your time trying to be a grown-up so soon. Make sure that after your four years of college, for better or for worse, you will have memories you will never forget.