Ten some odd years ago, every single one of us would be praying for a snow day at the slightest mention of snow in the forecast. That much hasn’t changed; any day we don’t have to pay attention to our responsibilities is always welcomed, but everything else has.
When I was ten, my typical snow day was as such: wake up early, relentlessly watching the names on the bottom of the TV screen scroll by until I saw that school was canceled, go back to bed, wake up an hour or two later to a nice breakfast of pancakes or french toast, watch movies, go sledding, come inside for hot chocolate, play a board game, read a book, paint something, watch YouTube videos for hours, and then it’d be time for dinner.
Today, a snow day seems very different. If you’re from the Northeast, you know how brutal the weather can be in winter. Usually, in the beginning of January, the big storms come, and for college students, that most likely means we’re already home on break. Which also means a snow day is like any other regular day to us.
If a big storm’s been in the forecast for a while, we are no longer constantly checking for cancelations because we have nowhere to be anyway. It’s weird seeing the mom of a friend of a friend posted on Facebook that school is canceled; the school had already started again?
I know at least for me, winter break has only become an extension of Christmas break, meaning at any given point during it, I have no idea what day of the week it is. Every day just meshes together. So the fact that there’s a snow day won’t affect me much. I’ll actually probably just end up doing the same thing anyway.
When snow days were once magical and full of fun, a snow day today goes more like this: sleeping in until 10 and waking up to see everything covered in snow, maybe taking a snap to let everyone know it’s snowed in case they didn’t already see for themselves, eventually pulling yourself out of bed and maybe make breakfast but maybe not, watch Netflix for x amount of hours, shovel in the blistering cold, just wanting to go somewhere or be with friends but knowing your car could never make it through the snow, getting bored and watching more Netflix, maybe cleaning if it comes to it.
And then eventually you just watch more Netflix and start wishing you were back in school, because then at least if classes were canceled you’d have extra time to get homework done.
Snow days have grown and changed with us, but not necessarily for the better. A day full of fun and magic has turned into tiresome, boring work that makes us stay inside in the warmth and waste away a whole day. Sometimes we secretly need a relaxing day like this, but then again it usually doesn’t come when we need it.
Snow is unpredictable and could trap you in, but what’s really saying that’s how a snow day has to be? If you’re 10 or 100, you can do whatever you want on a snow day, so maybe it’s time again to go play in the cold. It might feel ridiculous, but you won’t be feeling that way flying down a hill on your sled.
