Snow days are good for the soul. That is my solemn belief.
Snow days are bad for productivity. This is also my solemn belief.
Isn't it funny, THAT as soon as we hear we will be freed from all commitments, all expectations of academic achievement, that we flock to our computers and friend's rooms and the world just seems to stop? Because when it snows that much, it certainly seems like the world has ceased spinning. Nothing can move in that much snow, right? Even Time must surely be bound by things like the all-powerful snow day.
We have a calculator online, for goodness' sake, created by an MIT student might I add, that seeks to predict the probability of a day off from school.
(here you go : https://www.snowdaycalculator.com/calculator.php)
I cannot help but see the snow day now as some kind of primordial god who's arrival we await with each forecasted winter storm. It's a little ridiculous, don't you think?
In high school it was one thing - so what you didn't finish all that reading for tomorrow? The weatherman on News Center 5 said the storm was brewing and was a sure hit. The homework you've neglected is now hopelessly lost. It has been abandoned. It will never be seen by your eyes again. You acknowledge this. You are alright with this prospect. You see the snow. You move on.
In college, though...in college it feels a little different. I know that I certainly saw that email Wednesday night and thanked Boreas or whoever was responsible that I no longer had to worry about finishing the Faerie Queen that night. But I also told myself - quite sincerely, mind you - that I would read it Thursday, when I couldn't leave the dorm and had nothing else stopping me. Nothing else but a devious computer and friends that were just as snow-bound as I, that is.
So no. In short, I did not read the Faerie Queen. Sue me. I also did not write the two papers I had to write. Or really anything else. I did do laundry - that is something snow days are good for. I may not have gotten dressed but I did do laundry and I called my parents. That felt productive enough to me.
The snow day is a kind but unforgiving god. It is not to be trifled with, and like the ice that accompanies it, it is both beautiful and cold. Beware the deceitful nature of its passing but embrace it as it arrives, for it which is treated well and praised dutifully will surely return the good graces it has received.
All of this to say, maybe don't read all of the Faerie Queen because it is far too long for anyone's good. Do finish some work, however, on a snow day - even if the snow angels look friendly, they will freeze you if you make them before your work.
All hail the snow day. May it forever reign supreme.
