By Bessie King

I don’t like the cold. Every time I go out I feel like my face is being attacked by invisible needles and my lips are slowly slicing away. I don’t like the slush from the snowstorms either. Jeans and boots get stained and the rugs and floors are dirty and slippery. I also dislike the lack of public transportation etiquette. Do you really need to cough or sneeze in my face? Could you use a tissue and not your hand? In about three seconds, your hand will touch the hand rail to which I cling with dear life so I don’t stumble away — except for those days when the T is an hour late and commuters pack in like sardines.

But you know what really gets me? I despise not finding parking spots at the university. Even while having a huge parking lot and garage, drivers use two spots claiming they “can’t see the dividing lines clearly” or mountains of snow are piled to reach five feet high and five spaces sidewise.

I am on co-op and am still involved with student activities. I am not living on campus, and since I already pay for a T pass and parking permit at the station, I figure, why buy a school parking pass, right? Wrong. I may have to buy a school parking pass because the university doesn’t let students on co-op park in the parking lot for a couple of hours in order to go to meetings and such.

I know there are some students who could lie and say they are working to get free parking, but maybe the university could make a special sticker — free of cost — for co-op students who don’t live on campus and need to come to meetings two or three times a week. Maybe the university could use the nice people at the Registrar’s Office to get information on students who are working and have open applications for a limited amount of parking spaces to be used for a few hours each week. Would that be too hard? It certainly wouldn’t be harder than me putting up with the individuals who yell at me like they’re my mother for wanting to park on campus for an hour or two.

I like Northeastern, I really do, but I think sometimes the school forgets we still walk from building to building, and not all of us are wealthy enough to pay $10 for three hours of parking. Even if we are disconnected while on co-op we still want to be involved and should be helped instead of reprimanded — especially by parking garage clerks. This is probably an issue for on-campus students too, but I haven’t faced a winter with my car in Boston yet.

But you know what I do like? (After all, I am not a completely bitter person.) I like going skating in the Boston Common and the chocolate cookies from Stetson East afterwards. I like that student groups don’t let the snow stop their activities. And I would love it if the school could make a big deal about being connected while on co-op, just as they make a big deal about getting into the co-op experience.

– Bessie King is a sophomore journalism major.