I think snow days are something of a fascinating phenomenon.

I’ve written before about how they’re a neat example of the unstoppable force of nature meeting the immovable object that is human stubbornness — perhaps not in those exact terms, but I do remember rambling about how we as a species continue to live and thrive in many parts of the world that are semi-regularly shut down by precipitation, without significantly altering our behaviors or habits. It’s just, “oh, white frozen water from the sky again? Wait until it stops and push it out of the way.”

They just amuse me.

At the same time, though — we haven’t fully found a workaround. There really is no other solution — especially to storms like last week’s — than to wait until the snow stops and, well, push it out of the way. House by house and road by road. So for a handful of days every year, our society shuts down and all the rules go out the window.

Snow days are — speaking as a high schooler and teenager — nice. I won’t pretend that I don’t appreciate an unexpected chance to sleep in or a day off without worrying about making up schoolwork. There’s something reassuring about knowing everyone else in the immediate area is in the exact same boat.

Of course, everyone being in the same boat means that the rest of the world falls just that bit behind, too, and everyone’s scrambling to catch up. Some people are trying to find extra hours to work to pay rent. Teachers are forced to accelerate lesson plans, particularly if they’re expecting graduation to cut their class sizes early. Plans are being rapidly rescheduled. Time doesn’t stop just because the local community does.

Although it is interesting to contemplate what would happen if it did. If a day failed to achieve a certain level of activity, what if we crossed it off the calendar? Pretended it never existed and moved on with our lives? Repeated everything that was supposed to happen, and just happened to consign those 24 hours to oblivion?

We’d quickly fall out of sync with the rest of the world, and with the calendar year, but still. It’s something to wonder about.

Maybe someday we will figure out a better solution to snow days, and be able to, say, just hoverboard to work or school. Maybe we’ll move to an entirely technological commuting system and disregard the outdoors entirely. Maybe climate change will force us into living underground and forgetting weather was ever something that happened.

Maybe I’m rambling. Just a bit.

But for now, whether stressful or relieving … it’s good to acknowledge that there are some things out there in the world we just can’t control.

— Nina Collay is a student at Thornton Academy, Class of 2017, who can frequently be found listening to music, reading, wrestling with a heavy cello case, or poking at the keyboard of an uncooperative laptop.