“Any time not at school is a good time,” says tenth grader Beth Adams, echoing a sentiment shared by much of the Maggie Walker community. Winter break provided time for relaxation, vacation, and fun. Some students stayed home, taking the opportunity to catch up on sleep, while others, such as freshman Chloé Spivack, traveled. Spivack vacationed in Miami, Florida where she spent time with her family on the beach. “It was clear and so pretty there,” she said. In Miami, she stayed in a condo selling yummy smoothies, and she claims she bought approximately “five per day.”

Spivack was able to make it back to Richmond in time for the snow that graced the region. The beauty of this rare snow sighting was not lost to students who took advantage of these days by having snowball fights, making snowmen, and going sledding. Spivack spent one of her snow days playing in a jungle gym with friends and then “froze [her] hands off.” The snow, at some points, became so heavy that it caused flights out of Richmond to be cancelled and counties to lose power. One sophomore from Goochland, Brie Lawson, remarked that her house’s power “went out for little increments…about 20 seconds in total,” and that their “internet rebooted like 10 times on the first snow day.” 

However, the snowfall and the resulting cancellation of school was not appreciated by all. After the first two snow days, the break became boring for some people, as the initial joyful effects of the snow wore off. The snow became a cold and wet detriment from practicing students’ favorite outside activities and caused teachers to delay their agendas, decreasing the time allotted to learn all the information of courses for the school year. Additionally, Maggie Walker also has a set number of snow days before taking away days from summer break—those three days took away from this set number of snow days and set us closer to losing days of summer. 

Despite these circumstances, the snow days were a great way to slow the transition back from winter break to school, giving a much needed time for students to take a hiatus from the stress of school and unwind before the new year.