Snow Day
by Serena Lin ‘28
The weekend of January 18th, my roommate and I were hoping for a snow day the next day. Unfortunately, the sun rose as normal and the snow day alert email that my roommate and I were looking forward to did not arrive.
On the Friday of the same week, one of my teachers asked us to do whatever snow day rituals we could think of, from sleeping with pajamas worn backwards to taking a cold shower and putting a spoon under your pillow. Thankfully, the weather forecasts were predicting a large snowstorm ranging from Sunday to Monday.
The next day, January 24, the snow-day email arrived to announce both a snow day and a cold weather alert. Perhaps someone did wear their pajamas backwards, or perhaps my attempt at putting a giant soup spoon under my pillow (which is not very comfortable to sleep on) worked.
The storm was large flakes of snow blown up and down, left and right like a fiercely shaken snow globe. Snow piled up layer after layer on the ground, covering everything in dazzling white. While the snow was falling, St. Mark’s also posted announcements on adjusted schedules: dinner on Sunday and Monday ending early at 6 pm to allow Flik staff to drive home safely, food ordering and delivery temporarily banned because of unsafe driving conditions, and being mindful of facility staff working all day to clean off the snow piling up on walkways. Additionally, Orah passes could be extended to return on Monday, and Sunday check-in was pushed back to 9 pm. Being snowed in on Sunday night led to more weekend activities open: watching the NFC Championship games with Dr. Barnes, open gym, movie night, open kitchen, and the snow sculpture contest held by Ms. Caron and Mr. Giegucz with the winner being awarded a prize.
Monday afternoon, an email was sent announcing a late start of 8:45 am due to Evening Chapel. That same night, school on Tuesday was pushed back to 10 am, cancelling the free afternoon block, to account for bad road conditions.
23.2 inches of snow was recorded, ranking it one of the top ten snowstorms that Boston has had. Due to the extent of the snow, it is a true effort to clean all of it up to provide a safe environment for students. Regardless of these challenging conditions, many staff members went above and beyond to ensure the campus remained safe and comfortable.
A special thanks to the Flik staff who traveled to campus under the snow to provide food, facility crews who worked late into the night to clean up walkways, and all the staff members on campus who facilitated a warm and relaxed snow day!
