The students of Henrico High School have mixed feelings about the outdoor campus.

Getting outside between classes gives students a chance to clear their minds and get some fresh air. As one student said, “Experiencing nature helps you refresh.”

Here, in the height of winter, the outdoor campus of Henrico High School is bittersweet, but despite the bitter winter winds, there are countless sweet memories of weather on the HHS walkways.

In my sophomore year, there were several inches of snowfall and three times a day, for six minutes (not to mention before and after school) we all got the opportunity to regress to elementary age and play in the snow. Walking down the walkway, avoiding patches of ice, you could get caught up in a snowball fight, or you might pass a snowman that was thrown together haphazardly.

Talking about precipitation, rain is also weather we deal with often enough. But like the snow, we can make fun out of it. I remember one day my junior year, I was in the last class of the day and it was raining cats and dogs. Half of the students in the class were coming from the trailers – the one part of the school that does not have an overhead cover – so when they got to class, they were soaked through.

What did we do? The entire class ran outside and danced around in the torrential downpour until we were all soaking wet.