Snow days felt like a rite of passage growing up. You were guaranteed a day off here and there; and if you were lucky, a lot of two-hour delays. After roughing a few winters in college, I realize just how precious those snow days were. Apparently it’s normal to walk to class at 8AM in negative wind chills. Comparing snow days in school to snow days in college, I've discovered that maybe snow days aren't as great as we all thought they were, I mean it's still just cold and snowy out right? 

The night before

Growing up: We would do every trick in the book to guarantee a snow day, flush ice down the toilet, wear our pajamas inside out, and sleep with a spoon under our pillow. As soon as we got the announcement that school was canceled for the next day, our parents had no excuse to not let us stay up and watch a movie until 2AM.

Now: We complain that our school needs to cancel class because it’s just not fair to make me walk to class when its this cold out! But of course I have no problem trekking to my favorite bar at 11PM to take fireball after fireball shots. The name has fire in it, it’ll totally make me warmer on my walk home not wearing a coat.

The morning of

Growing up: Nothing would make me more upset than when I would wake up on a snow day and "The Price is Right" only had 10 minutes left. Why was the show on so early in the first place?! Even if I missed "The Price is Right," I still stayed on the couch for the next three plus hours watching Spongebob annoy Squidward. If you were lucky, "Sky Kids" would be on too.

Now: They always told us that we had to pick two of the three in college: good grades, sleep, or fun. Jokes on them because snow days give us the time to sleep, and sleep, and then sleep some more. You'll see me after 2PM. 

Physical activity

Growing up: We would beg our moms to come home early from work to take us to the sledding hill down the road. We’d be at the door with our sleds and 10 layers of clothing ready to go. Sure it was great. The first two times. Then that trek up the hill wasn’t so fun anymore. Time to go home.

Now: The most activity we muster now is walking from our bed to the couch (sometimes). I must give credit to the frat guys who wander outside to create eh, interesting, snow masterpieces and exert their dominance in a snowball fight. I’ll pass.

Food

Growing up: Remember the days you lived with responsible people who stocked the fridge with milk that wasn’t two weeks old and had an endless selection of cereals to choose from? Oh, how I miss home sometimes.

Now: You open the cabinet to find a can of soup and moldy bread. So, Jimmy John’s still delivers in a blizzard right?

Homework

Yea… nothing has changed about this. We still wait until the night our homework was due to actually start it.