Optimism

Growing up, I rarely hated going to school. There were classes I didn't like: math and science leap to mind, as does P.E. But having those classes didn't cancel out the fact that I actually liked school. I got to see my friends, and there were enough positive things throughout the years- choir, theatre, dance, classes with favorite teachers- to cancel out the things I disliked.

In college, during the first few semesters, I skipped class a few times just because I could. I always felt guilty, even if I was skipping a class I despised. So after those first few semesters, I sucked it up and went to class. Of course, there were exceptions where I really did need to spend time studying or researching...strangely I didn't feel guilty about skipping then. But that happened rarely.

The thing every kid dreams of and look forward to, as I'm sure you remember, is a day when school is cancelled. School vacation is great, but I'm talking about when you go to sleep at night thinking you have school in the morning, and when you wake up, you're told school is cancelled. There was always something special about those days. That feeling continued in college. I always checked my email before leaving for class hoping that my professor would send a last minute email cancelling class. It happened a few times, and it was awesome. The sun shone a little brighter, the world seemed a little happier.

I've come to the conclusion that this desire to have school cancelled never ends. When you enter the Real World, there's still that little optimistic voice on the inside that says "maybe the electricity will get cut off and we won't have to go in" or "maybe it will flood a little bit, not enough to damage anything, just enough to prevent me from going to work."

As a disclaimer, I do not enjoy my current job. Given a choice 100 times, I would rather stay home than go to work (if I still would get paid) 100 times. However, even when I was working at the coffee shop, which I LOVED, I would still have that optimistic voice. So, I don't think it really matters if you love or loathe what you do- the prospect of a free day takes us back to that childhood optimism and anticipation.

Of course, as a child on the Gulf Coast of Texas, the reasons for school being cancelled were floods or hurricanes. We got ice/slush/sleet/snow once while I was in elementary school, but I don't remember if we got out early for that. I do remember we were rehearsing for the 2nd Grade play, and our teachers took us outside so we could see the ice/slush/sleet/snow.

Now on the East Coast, there's a real live possibility of snow days, which is a little bizarre. My boss told me to go home early today because the news had been predicting a "winter storm" to hit right about rush hour. Here's another thing that never looses its childhood excitement: early dismissal. One of my roommates got home shortly after I did, and we both talked about how great it would be if it stormed too much for the buses to run tomorrow.

I'll probably go to work at the same time tomorrow, and there will probably only be another inch of snow on the ground. In fact, as I type this, the snow will probably stop falling. But I can be optimistic.