Waking up on a school morning and hearing the news that school is cancelled will make any student happy. For the time being, you can catch up on sleep, hang out with friends, or enjoy the winter weather. But the joy of a snow day is only temporary. Fast forward a few months, and you’ll be wishing there hadn’t been any snow days to begin with. The truth is, snow days are fun while they last, but they’re really just a couple extra hours of relaxation in the winter that can have big consequences in the summer in return.

    We all remember the winter last year, when having a five day week was an extremely rare occasion. The “snow” days began before the snow was even falling. When Superstorm Sandy hit, the East Coast was devastated with flooding, power outages, and winds up to 80 mph. This storm was the cause of 2 snow or “weather” days in Scituate, tacking on an extra 2 days to the original last day of school, June 17.

    The weather only continued to get worse. Superstorm Nemo hit the East Coast from Feb. 7 to Feb. 9. Nemo hit New England, causing up to 40 inches of snow and wind gusts up to 83 mph. The aftermath was even worse. Nemo left New England without power in most places for several days, and in Scituate, the power outage lasted as much as 7 days. A week without heat and power in the dead of winter was unpleasant to say the least, and this storm added another 4 days to the snow day count.

    As if that weren’t enough, we had another 2 snow days due to the storm in March, making the grand total 8 snow days, and prolonging the last day of school 8 more days. All these snow days changed the particularly early June 17 date to a depressing June 27.  Many students at SHS were unhappy with this.

     “Considering last year, we had to say in school a lot longer and get out later, and we had a lot of work to make up, and it was difficult,” said senior Kerrin Taylor.

     After spending 6 days in the freezing cold with no heat, and then spending the week of June 24 taking final exams in the blistering heat, one might say that snow days simply aren’t worth it. Students at Scituate High tend to agree.

    “They’re just pointless because then you have to go later in the summer, and no one wants that. We already have vacation anyway… It’s 6 hours, we can just go to school it’s not a big deal,” said junior Savannah Hayes.

    This winter, when you’re sitting in school and wishing for a snow day, just remember that they’re not as much fun as they seem. The consequences afterward, like staying later in the school year, are just not worth it in the end. So don’t hope for snow days, because the less we have, the happier you’ll be this summer.