My favorite part of the school year: waking up on a Tuesday morning in January, looking at my clock to realize it’s 10:00 already, and then looking out my window to see the snow falling from the sky. There really is no better feeling.

Sometimes I sleep in for another hour. Sometimes I go outside and force my siblings to get artsy pictures of me in the snow. Sometimes I stay inside by the fireplace. Either way, snow days are always a fun surprise and the best way to relax and reset for the rest of the week.

But, if you don’t need to leave the house to get to school, snow no longer cancels school. In our virtual setting, snow days are often just like any other day: a day by the computer on Zoom classes. I feel very lucky that my school has decided to cancel virtual learning for a couple of snow days because I think they are extremely necessary. As a typical high schooler on a normal year, my day consists of waking bright and early to get to school, spending 7 hours of my day learning, spending a couple of hours at sports practice, and then heading home to write some essays, do some math worksheets, and then read a couple more books. Snow days are a necessary break for me to not only catch up on work but do something other than school.

Furthermore, in virtual learning, our lives are typically more boring. For me, I wake up, go to school and do homework all in the same room, all day. (I do get out of my room to eat meals and go outside a bit but you get the point). Being in this virtual setting has made every day feel the exact same, even the weekends sometimes. Snow days are even more necessary to break up the repetitiveness of virtual learning and give students of all ages time to relax and get outside. Unlike what many teachers seem to think, I still have a similar workload being at home versus being in person at school.

Having been able to have some snow days has given me time to relax and catch up, but most importantly, it has allowed me to escape the ‘trap’ of quarantine by just getting some time to go outside.