Snow Days...

Ok so seemingly the whole world was on a snow day today from Indiana to Erie...well...except of course: me.

Now it is fair to say that we did not get nearly the amount of snow as the swath of the country directly hit by the one-two punch of the storms, but I can still complain about the injustice of it all. Can't I?

Perhaps it is the nostalgia of the good old days when snow days actually meant something...like in elementary school. Those days were magical. No homework. Nowhere to be (except outside). This is kinda in stark contrast to what snow days are for older students.

Homework suddenly is a longer term "project" where just because you aren't having school a particular day doesn't mean something still won't be due the day you get back. During these years, especially the high school ones, you start to be your own weather forecaster or superintendent trying to foresee how bad a particular storm is and whether or not you can procrastinate on your homework knowing that classes will assuredly be canceled the following day.

Add to the mix that the fact that as an "older" person, you have added responsibilities that never manifested themselves like being responsible for clearing the driveway and cleaning off your snow. Unless you are really into that sort thing, snow can become a tedious affair. And let's not forget that many of the simple pleasures of snow days are kinda lost to you...no longer do you just want to go play outside in the snow (whether it is sledding or snowball fights)--that has lost its novelty.

By the time you get to college (or gasp...graduate school), a snow day really has lost most of its pep. So classes might be canceled, but that just means one less day of class...more that you have to learn on your own. The remaining lectures will be more jam-packed than ever with info you have to absorb, and lab classes will be thrown all asunder. Snow days don't mean extra time for projects or pushed back exam schedules. For graduate students, research must go on. I would argue most college students come to regard snow as a nuisance, especially if it is "bad" (for driving or walking purposes) but not "bad" enough to really shutdown the world.

I myself am a huge snow lover...in whatever amounts Nature wishes to dole it out. (The more the merrier though.) I still have almost that elementary school outlook on snow and snows. Playtime! I watch/listen for my old stomping grounds to be closed...jealous that I no longer go there to enjoy the perks of a day off.

For U of M to truly shutdown would probably take something of epic proportions, seemingly nothing will stop classes campus-wide. Which means, no snow days for me.

But at least I will always have my memories of snows long past: