I’ve lived in Michigan basically all my life up until these past few years that I’ve spent in South Carolina. When I was younger, I would dream of having a snow day each and every time a snow storm was developing. What kid wouldn’t? Think about it… A day off from the monotonous work in the classes we went to every day. A day off from having homework and having to get up at 6am. A day off of riding the bus or driving my car to and from school. Not to mention as I got older, it was a day off from all the drama that happened so often at the high school level.
Snow days, in my eyes, were God’s gift to us telling us that we would all be okay in this maelstrom of homework and tedious class exercises. I took them with a teaspoon of sugar, and soaked up every last minute of them playing Madden, watching The Price Is Right, or taking out my sled and tearing down both the plowed mound of snow at the end of my street and the nearby hill at the neighbor’s house. Nothing was better than coming in from the outside with snow all over my face, my glasses fogging up, and my mom waiting for us with a cup of hot chocolate and mini marshmallows that danced away inside the glass. This is what snow days were all about, right?
Every one of us (except for those who possibly live in the southwestern United States) has felt this incredible jubilation when the snow or ice piles on the road as mother nature releases her frozen fury. Heck, here I am as a senior in college, and I still got that feeling today as our school was called off due to snow. You know exactly what I’m talking about when I bring back those memories because each of you have probably had memories such as these or similar to these. But I find myself thinking that as I get older, maybe snow days aren’t all that they are cracked up to be.
If there is one thing that I value from my educational experience in college, it would be the ability to empathize with others. The fact that I’ve been able to learn how to feel and understand the emotions of other people tops anything I’ve learned in any of my classes. It’s because of this that when I make the statement “we should hate snow days”, I mean it with all my heart. While we are here drinking hot chocolate, sledding down hills, throwing snowballs at each other, or curled up with our loved ones in front of a fireplace or a romantic movie, others who are less fortunate are begging on the side of the road, scrounging for food, and struggling to find blankets or whatever else they can find to keep them warm. While we enjoy the comforts of our own homes and the laughs of family and friends, others are literally fighting for their lives to keep warm and fend for themselves.
They sit bundled up on the sides of the road wrapped in their newspapers and torn up blankets. They are dressed in layers of torn clothes and garments. Their hats draped loosely over their heads, hardly covering their exposed ears. Their hands are white and tough, completely frozen from the snow and ice falling from the sky. The frostbite rips its way into their fingers and toes as the cold embeds itself into their limbs. Their cries for help quickly blow away in the frigid wind, ceasing ever to exist. They feel the wind eat them alive in its arctic jaws. They curl up in a ball, doing whatever they can with all of their power to brave the night, hoping and praying that they will wake up whenever they so fall asleep. They long for help in the busiest streets of the busiest towns and cities, but no one is there to hear their voices.
This is their snow day.
We find ourselves consumed so far within ourselves that we often forget we are only one of many that God put on this earth. As we enjoy our snow day, others are literally dying in the cold, without shelter, without food, and without hope. Who are we to be so fortunate? Who are we to be born into families that were fortunate enough to be successful financially? Who are we to be born into a home where we were encouraged by our family and friends to make the right choices and go to college to get a degree? Who are we to have a job that puts food on the table and a roof over our heads? Who are we to have been given skills and abilities that allows us to do so? We are truly blessed and fortunate, that’s what we are. We are blessed to be able to go to school, to have a job, to be able to stay warm in the cold weather, and have a roof over our heads.
Snow days can be fun, but as for me, I hate them because I know my fellow human being is somewhere out there freezing, hungry, and without hope. I suggest we open our eyes and begin to realize that although we may enjoy looking back at the memories we made on snow days past and present, someone that we should have loved may not have lasted through the night.
