Today was our first snow day of the year. It is what every student and every teacher who lives in a northern climate dreams of. An unexpected day off. The gift of time. No agenda, no responsibilities. Be careful what you wish for! Today's snow day was lackluster. First there was all the hype about the storm that was coming. (Beware of the hype... nothing ever lives up to the hype). Plus, there was the anticipated closings. We knew at 2:00 that there would be no school the next day. The whole thing was so planned, so contrived and so disappointing. Where was the anticipation, the wonder, the surprise, the joy of a snow day? Because we knew we would have the next day off, it stopped being a day off. It became a day on, complete with lists of chores for the next morning. We knew we could sleep in so we turned off the alarm clocks, instead of turning on the news at 6:00 a.m. and waiting in child-like anticipation for our district's name to be scrolled across the bottom of the tv screen. And then the storm never materialized. Gone was that feeling of being snowed in. Gone was the gift of time. Gone was the feeling like we had a whole unscheduled day ahead of us. I really missed that feeling. It is like an indulgence, a guilty pleasure, a whole day off.
I spent the day cleaning and doing laundry. The kids spent the day in an endless cycle of getting along and bickering. Meals were made, dishes done, clothes put away. The snow never really came until later in the day. There wasn't really even enough to send them out to shovel.
I usually love snow days. But I want a good, old-fashioned one. One that results from a real snowstorm. So you feel cozy in your house with all the heavy snow coming down outside the window. One that you find out about by checking the news from 5:30 a.m. on, watching the list twice just to be sure. One that stretches before you like untouched snow: pristine, clean, unmarked. One that feels like the gift of time. One that feels like you earned it. One where you make popcorn and drink hot chocolate after bundling up to go out with the shovel. One where you don't have a long list of chores facing you when you get up. One that feels a little bit guilty.
Don't get me wrong, I liked the day off. I did a lot of laundry. I didn't have to go to work. I stayed in my pj's until noon. But I felt like I missed out on something. The "gift of time" feeling. The excitement of a snow day was missing because of the early call off. Be careful what you wish for.
