Rest In Peace to all the people out there who have full time jobs this summer. Summer is not even halfway done and we're already dragging our way through the workday, just counting down the days until we can say goodbye to our hometowns and get back to school. And you know what is making this life flooded with work, chores, homework and drama even worse? The fact that the Fourth of July lies on a Wednesday this year.
My dad has been saying this for years, but I strongly believe that most holidays, especially the Fourth of July, should always be on either Friday or Saturday. It wouldn't be that hard to let the public know that the holiday that lies on July 4 has been moved to the first Friday of the month and will now and forevermore simply be called "Independence Day" like so many people already call it.
There are so many reasons that it would just be better to move the holiday to a Friday. First of all, people wouldn't have to take as much time off of work. Because this year the holiday lies on a Wednesday, people want Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off from work plus the entire weekend. I understand this because maybe they want to spend it with family, go on a trip or head up to the lake and just relax, but that it just way too much time off from work for a holiday that really is just an excuse to spend a day at the lake and shoot fireworks.
Another reason the holiday should be moved to a Friday or Saturday is because it is actually a holiday that really doesn't get celebrated until the sky is dark, which in turn makes people stay up way later than usual and therefore if they have to work the next morning (unlike if it were on a weekend), they could be very ineffective at their jobs. No one wants to spend all of Independence Day thinking about all of the work they have to finish before the weekend or how many hours of sleep they need to get. It's a time to spend and enjoy with friends and family and the only worries on people's minds should be if they bought enough fireworks and s'mores supplies.
The Fourth of July is also notorious for being a day where people drink a lot. From an employer's standpoint, how excited are you if you know that some/most of your employees are going to be showing up to work the next day completely and totally hungover?
Every year, I look forward to spending the morning and early afternoon with my dad picking out the coolest fireworks we can find to go shoot at the lake or on my grandpa's farm, and then waiting for the sun to set as the anticipation builds to shoot those bad boys off. This year, I will be spending almost the entire day working while my family prepares for one of the most fun days of the year without me. I can't speak for everyone, but I think that the general public would accept Independence Day being moved back to the first Friday of July every year.
