The Observer, March 7, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 20
Snow day!
It always gets me how sometimes the tiniest little flurry falls down and schools get cancelled. But it's never your school – in elementary school, it's the other district; in high school, it's the school across town; and at Case Western Reserve University, it's all the elementary schools, high schools, and colleges but you. For years, I was trained to believe that it was impossible for Case to have a snow day – based on some vague, ancient legend about a student, missed class time and a lawsuit – but last year, on Feb. 14, everything changed.
Last Feb. 13, I was bumming out. It seemed to be apocalyptically cold outside, and I had a class at 7:30 the next morning, in addition to a ton of homework due. Rather than focusing on my coursework, though, I spent the night visiting the Weather Channel online every five minutes or so. I justified my slothfulness with the idea that despite the comfortable heating and insulation in my dorm, it was just too cold to work. By the time I realized how terrible I was going to feel in the morning, trudging unprepared through the freezing cold to class, something miraculous started happening. The cry started down the hall – "School's cancelled!" – and swelled into a deafening roar. The madness lasted for about five minutes, and then we realized how tired we all were and slept for the next 24 hours, effectively missing the snow day anyway. I have never been happier.
But my happiness was short lived. It did not take me long to learn that the problem with getting snow day once is that you want to have a snow days all the time. When test time rolls around, you cross your fingers and spend hours refreshing the main Case website over and over on the off chance that school might be cancelled. You put off studying until you know for sure – but once again, it seems that no matter how hard the weather rails against the window-panes, you will never experience a snow day again.
This past Monday, the temperature was 60 degrees, and the very next day, pieces of ice rained down from the cold, wretched sky. Instead of doing the papers that were due Wednesday, there I was, once again, dreaming of the snow day that will never be. I thought March was supposed to come in like a lion and leave like a lamb, or maybe vice versa, but never both. Tomorrow the weather may once again be fine, and my desperate hope for a snow day will be only a memory.
The problem with snow days is that you have absolutely no control over when or where they may occur. But someone obviously does have control over these things – is it the school president? Deans? All I know is that no one can make me happier than a merciful snow-day granter, and no one leaves me more bitter than the people who make me walk to school in the freezing cold. But if I were in control, there would be a new balance of power. No more anxiety when a test came – if I felt I couldn't handle it, I would simply pencil in a snow day. Everyone would love me – except for the mythical students with their missed classtime lawsuits. Perhaps I will pursue a career in academics after all…
