When I got the happy news on Sunday, Jan. 25, I thought that it was too good to be true. Just a week into my new schedule, Colgate was blessed with a snow day for the entirety of Monday. I figured I could use the day to catch up on my work and get myself off to a strong start this semester while still having time to relax on this impromptu long weekend. But this assumption turned out to be a mistake.
Instead of catching up, I decided to immediately place a moratorium on schoolwork for the day. I had already completed half of my work by this point and I thought I would have a productive and relaxing day on Monday to wrap up everything that I needed to do.
I expected the snow day to be like the ones in my childhood, sledding down my driveway and making snow angels, but this college snow day had a completely different feel. With no pressure to go to my 9:20 a.m. class, I slept in a couple of extra hours and sat around on my phone for a few more hours during the morning, already getting off to a slow start. There’s nothing wrong with doing that on an off day, but the problem was that I stayed unproductive for way longer than I should have. For the rest of the day, I did the bare minimum, getting only the work I knew was due on Tuesday done, not planning for what the rest of the week was going to look like. I could have accounted for assignments days into the future and prepared for the rest of the week and the work that I would need to catch up on from the classes that were cancelled. Instead, I spent most of the day in my dorm, hiding from the snow, only risking a few trips out to get food from Frank Dining Hall.
On Tuesday, the snow day was over, but my snow day mindset had not gone away. For the next few days, after I got back from class, I would put off work until hours later, and I spent more time than usual just lounging around the dorm. Over winter break, I had a similar lack of urgency, and the snow day had only reinforced this behavior. I found myself rushing every night to complete my work, staying up late on school nights when I should not have needed to. For a couple of days, I did not even realize that anything was different. Perhaps later into the semester, I would have been able to get back on track after a day like this. But, I was not acclimating back into Colgate like I had wanted to and the snow day had only ended up slowing down that process. I wanted to be someone more active at Colgate and in our community, but by the end of the week, I realized that I was not really accomplishing that.
So, what will I change going forward? For one thing, I will try to get work done earlier in the day so that I have actual free time later on. If I have the pressure of homework hanging over my head all day, I won’t be able to fully enjoy myself. From now on, I want to be more productive, which will definitely help get my grades off to a strong start. Secondly, whenever I have a free day like a weekend or another snow day, I will try to do something on campus, no matter how bad the weather. I can take a lazy Saturday once in a while, but I think in general I’m going to have more fun by doing things with cool people than I will by sleeping in and getting nothing done.
So I don’t plan on having another snow day like Jan. 25 again. If we ever get another one, I, at the very least, plan on taking a few more sled rides down the hill than I did for this one!
