Some thoughts on a snowy day

Today marks my fourth day in as many weeks working from home. The first day was due to extreme cold, the second due to a burst pipe and flooded Senior School, the third was due to freezing rain, and today’s is due to a “Colorado low” bringing a bunch of snow and freezing rain. But I’m starting to better understand the law of diminishing returns when it comes to snow days this year.

Don’t get me wrong: I love me a snow day like everyone else. The unexpected ones are the absolute best, when you’re dressed and about to walk out the door for work and you get the call to go back to bed. (Though I never go back to bed. A snow day is far too great a gift to be wasted with sleep!)

But this year, with four of these days already under our belt and no end of winter in sight, I’m starting to realize how much I must love my job when the thought of a snow day actually disappoints me a little bit!

I’m also starting to see the interconnectedness of what what we do, and how all of those moving parts that make up life in an independent school get a wrench thrown into them when the school is closed due to weather or other things. I ache for our drama department, who has had rehearsal after rehearsal cancelled due to these days. We’re too weeks from their winter production and they are desperate for rehearsal time. Tests and assignments have had to be cancelled and squeezed in on top of an already jam-packed academic schedule. Our poor athletic director has spent more time rescheduling cancelled games than he spent making the original schedule, I’m sure. As convenor of the CISAA snowboard league, I’ve spent hours on these “days off” writing emails trying to figure out what to do about our cancelled Championship event last week. I’m worried about whether our event tomorrow will be able to take place, and if it can’t, what it will mean for our now rescheduled event for next week. (Can you even imagine it – a snowboard league that wishes we didn’t have quite as much snow?!)

Our schools are filled with such a rich abundance of activities that everyone is now feeling the squeeze. It just makes me realize how valuable the work is that we do on a daily basis – not just our teaching but all of the other activities that we do: the trips that we chaperone, the plays that we direct, the parent phone calls that we make, the administrative forms that we fill out…. A snow day is a lovely break from all of that but in the end, it seems to create even more work for a lot of people.

So on this cold, blustery snow day, I’m very grateful not to have to drive back and forth to work (and I’m using my time to really try to get caught up on work!) but I am also cognizant of how will affect others. Be safe and warm today, friends!

1 thought on “Some thoughts on a snowy day

  1. I think I’ve been home 3 days this year thus far due to weather. Our school does not close, but on really awful days I use personal days as I commute and it’s just not the risk sometimes. That being said, I miss my kids when I’m away unexpectedly so I understand your sentiment.

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