It’s 6 a.m. on a Monday morning in mid-December, when your alarm (aka torture device) goes off. As you leave the warmth and comfort of your bed for the frigid cold of your bedroom, it’s pure torment. Then you get outside to wait at the bus stop, and wonder why Mother Nature hates high schoolers as the wind bites through your coat and jeans.

Yet three feet away, the kid in your math class stands there in shorts. Why do they dress like it’s 70 degrees hotter than the actual temperature? Do they just enjoy the pain and suffering?

Apparently, it’s more complicated than that.

For example, Jared Hoffman (‘17) says that he owns more pairs of shorts than pants.

Sometimes, you don’t have your laundry done, and you don’t want to wear a pair of dirty jeans. Pants just get too warm. Some have classes requiring activewear during the day, and they prefer not to change.

While some of these reasons seem pretty valid, I still can’t shake the image that those who choose shorts must slowly be turning themselves into popsicles. To each their own, but wearing pants instead of shorts is never a bad idea. You’re more prepared if you unexpectedly find yourself stuck in the cold. You’re insulated against the classroom whose temperature clearly indicates that the teacher wishes they taught in Antarctica. A lot of long pants are jeans, making the world an easier place because, “jeans go with anything,” says Carter Hickenlooper (‘17). And as a girl, I can’t neglect the ultimate perk: no one knows if you shaved your legs.