If you have lived in an area with actual seasons, you are probably familiar with the joyous term, “snow day.” If you have not I am truly sorry for you. But in that case: Welcome to New England; we hope you enjoyed your first snow day!
Snow days are, in my experience, a welcome and unexpected break from classes and a time to rest, relax, and enjoy some time-honored winter fun. Not that missing the second day of school constitutes a “break.” Maybe a break from endless syllabi, but isn’t syllabus week a break in and of itself?
Even here at SNHU, you can find students frolicking and finding joy in the soft sheets and empty fields of snow or sipping on a hot cocoa trying to keep their hands warm while seeking warmth around campus. When timed correctly, snow days fall on either a Friday or a Monday to expand the weekend for maximum relaxation. Who cares if you have to scrape a sheet of ice off your car if you’re getting out of math class?
Don’t get me wrong, snow days are always appreciated in the middle of weeks too. A break from the usual monotony of the Monday through Friday grind is always appreciated. But the downside of snow days are not necessarily on the snow day itself, but on the days following. I like to call it “the cleanup.”
The cleanup is no longer soft white sheets. In SNHU’s case, it is brown and blue tinted slush and frozen sidewalks. It is being late to a class because you had to move your snow-covered car from a far lot, only to find that there is still snow in the lot that you are supposed to be parking in. It is salt stains on all of your pants, boots, jackets, backpacks and everything you hold dear to your heart. The cleanup is what everybody hates about snow.
If I could have snow that magically avoids sidewalks, parking lots, cars and overhanging tree limbs, I would be much happier with flurries. Unfortunately, snow does not do that, so here we are.
