January 27th, 2014. A day that will live in the minds of University of Michigan students for years to come, as the first time in 36 years that classes were cancelled due to the weather conditions.
I can still remember the moment I found out about this blissful snow day. I was “enjoying” yet another meal in the gourmet dining hall, complaining about the work I had ahead of me that night, when suddenly a fellow North Campus refugee exclaimed that classes were cancelled for the next day.
I could hardly believe my ears. My friends and I stared at one another in a state of disbelief. We had to confirm this rumor before we could get too excited.
Sure enough, I checked my UMich email to find one of the most beautiful pieces of mail I’ve ever received. It was official. The University of Michigan would be having its first snow day since 1978, back when dinosaurs roamed the campus (or at least when my dad was an undergraduate student).
Of course, some students decided to use the day to catch up on their never-ending pile of work. Others spent the free time catching up on sleep and watching movies in their heated dorm room. However, that was not the snow day experience I wanted to have. If I was to be one of the lucky Michigan students to experience the foreign concept of a college snow day, I had to make the most of it.
And that I did. I braved the cold with my North Campus pals, against my better judgment, to make the trek to the real world (Central Campus) for a day I would never forget.
While my dad told me the stories of snow days past, of college kids sledding down snow-covered terrain on cafeteria trays in the Arb, I opted for something a bit more my style: Snarty. A snow day darty. What better excuse could there be to take pulls of Crystal Palace on a weekday morning?
To this day Snarty, as it was affectionately named, will forever be one of my favorite Michigan memories. As I write my love letter to this special day, I find myself reminiscing about the time when I should have been in class, but I instead spent my day in an unnamed fraternity house, in a sweater and snow boots (when this attire was acceptable for going out), while I cemented myself as part of university history.
When my children attend the University of Michigan, I will tell them stories of my college days, and the first story I will tell will be the one about my first college snow day. They will laugh and wonder what was so special, since snow days are the norm in K-12 education, a phenomenon taken for granted by the spoiled masses of students.
Ironically enough, University of Michigan freshmen got to see firsthand what all the hype was about last Monday, February 2nd, 2015. Two snow days in two years. An unbelievable abnormality for the University. But I can’t say that I was complaining.
