On the morning of February 13, I, along with others in the Moravian community, opened my blinds to see a snow-covered campus as far as the eye could see. Immediately, I felt like a kid again, staring out at the winter wonderland sitting before me. I could drink hot cocoa, play video games, and maybe even run around in the snow. I wouldn’t have any school to worry about since, obviously, there was no way we’d have classes. I could just enjoy my day off … 

Or so I thought.

Nope, we still had classes. They were over Zoom, but they were classes nonetheless. Moravian referred to this as a “remote day,” but I want to know why. Why did we have a remote day? Why couldn’t we have a snow day? Just because we can use Zoom doesn’t mean we should use Zoom. Just because I can commit tax fraud, doesn’t mean I should commit tax fraud. See where I’m going here?

That’s not to say Zoom isn’t helpful. In the right situation, it can be a great tool. In this instance, though, I don’t find it very helpful. My classes, like many others, were exclusively in person. What do you think it’s like to try to transfer an in-person class over to Zoom in a few hours? I’ve got the answer: it’s awful. Nothing productive gets done, and it just feels like a massive waste of time. If a class was built around being online, then it’d be fine, but that wasn’t the case here.

I get the need to not fall behind, but it gets to a point where we’re falling behind anyway because Zoom does absolutely nothing. Instead of enjoying the weather, I was forced to sit inside and look at my computer screen so my attendance wouldn’t be negatively affected.

Moravian tried to mitigate this by having a snowman-building contest, which on one hand, I can appreciate. It incentivized going out and enjoying the snow, but the motivation to do so was mitigated by the inevitable classes we had to attend. I wonder if we would’ve seen more snowmen if classes were canceled …

Whatever happened to waking up to that call informing us school was canceled? Remember the joy we felt, rushing outside or getting all cozy in our homes? Those memories are some of my favorites from grade school, reminding me that there are some days that belong to me and me only. I understand that as we grow up, we can’t be expected to hold onto the joys of our youth, but I think snow can be an exception. One snow day wasn’t going to screw everything up, and I wish Moravian would’ve thought of that rather than trying to hold classes.