Snow Day

Most people in the Midwest say that they remember the excitement they would have as a little kid on a snow day. The giddy anticipation, wondering if school would really be cancelled. The joy you’d feel as you’d bundle up to go sledding down the nearest huge hill with the rest of the neighborhood kids.

Snow days were something to look forward to. They were something to perform superstitious rituals for — anything to help the clouds muster together the right balance for snowflakes to fall from them. Millions and millions of snowflakes. And, when a snow day would happen? Almost nothing could beat that feeling.

I think we lose track of being amazed by those tiny moments as we grow up.

Not every midwestern adult holds onto that excitement about snow. Actually, I’m not sure if there are very many of us midwestern adults that do. But I know that I am one of them; an adult that still has a childlike excitement about snow. 

Maybe not every single snow day all winter. If it’s been especially cold and blustery for months on end, sometimes I can’t bring myself to keep enjoying the grey and windy cold in March. To me though, those winters are rare. Most of the time I enjoy the snow all season.

My favorite snow of all is the first one of the winter. Once the leaves have all fallen and the ground has been frosty, I start anticipating it. I get anxious waiting — especially if we make it more than a week or two into December before snow finally happens.

This year though, the first snow was right on time where I live. Today, like a foot of heavy packing snow dumped down on us. We woke up in a winter wonderland. And the snow just kept falling. All day long.

I could turn it into a metaphor. About how after all the things put on hold this year, today is another instance of simple joy in life that we don’t have to wait for. 

I’d rather play in the snow though, just enjoying it. So that’s what I did today. I spent time being excited that the first snowfall of the season was such a good one.

No, my day was not the one I had planned for. It was better.

I had something else planned for my writing today. Something about holiday shopping, the challenge of gifts and whatnot. Maybe I’ll still share it another week. But sometimes, you just need to enjoy a snow day and contentedly let it change your plans.