Christopher Newport University’s first snow day of the year.
When I was in high school, getting a snow day was one of the greatest things ever. My mom, an elementary school teacher at the time, would teach me all these weird rituals to make the snow come. We’d wear our pajamas inside out, and put spoons under our pillows. It’s safe to assume that we really liked getting out of school. When it did snow, we’d make snow ice cream (also known as snow cream) and go sledding. All the kids in the neighborhood would come over, and we’d play without a care in the world. When we had to go back to school, all my friends and I would talk about how much sleep we got and all the fun we had. In fact, my senior year it snowed so much that mid-terms were canceled! It was great.
In college, snow days mean a different thing. A little bit of snow isn’t going to cut it for our lovely university to stop running. It takes a lot, so a snow day for a high school might be another day in the life of a college student. When it does snow a lot and class is canceled, we’ve still got plenty of work due when we come back to school. We have these nifty little things called syllabuses, and they make it so even if a day of class is missed, you don’t have to wait on the professor to tell you what to move on to. All your reading assignments are on there, too. Even if you don’t have class on the day your big paper is due, your big paper is still due. So really, it’s like you’re taking your class online because class doesn’t stop outside of the classroom for us.
We do have fun, though. When the snow piles form, we climb them. We also have snowball fights on occasion. However, the cold weather mostly just keeps us from our much-needed trips to the Trible Library, and makes it more slippery when walking to the dining hall for food.
Friends and family, don’t be mad at us college students for not sharing your enthusiasm for the snow. We’re happy for you, really. It’s just different for us.
