The first snow day of the year landed on Friday, November 18th, and although we were all secretly hoping for it, some of us may not have thought it was the best thing in the world. Friday the 18th not only held Spring Lake High School’s first-hour exams but also was the scheduled day for other classes’ review periods. Now, as most high schoolers know, there are already a ton of anxious feelings looming around exam days but with the snow day taking away one of our scheduled exam days, we were then forced to cram three different 90-minute exams all into one day. 

In today’s world, anxiety and stress are very common things experienced by high school students. One of the main factors that add to the stress amongst the teenagers is high expectations that the students put on themselves to do well. I feel that as a student, many of my peers put a lot of pressure on themselves to receive good grades. Along with the pressure that the students in our school put on themselves to see those good grades on their report cards, most of these students also have jobs and participate in after-school activities. With all these events going on in a student’s life, the one thing that is easy to sacrifice is sleep. Most students do not get the full 8 recommended hours of sleep each night which makes the body feel more stressed out. 

So the topic of having a snow day on one of our exam days was very controversial. When we missed school due to the roads we were all missing a much-needed exam day and review periods for other exams. I, however, feel that the snow day was a good decision. Not only were the roads too dangerous for young inexperienced drivers to drive on but having this snow day also provided a chance for some students to study for the exams and also give all the students a day to catch up on sleep and get well rested before the stress of the exams began on the Monday before thanksgiving.