As a kid, snow days have always been praised; there was always something so magical about getting to skip school to have snowball fights and make snow angels with your friends, especially because snow is somewhat of a rarity in Georgia. However, with aging comes a loss of that magic.

Now, snow days are nothing more than a glorified sick day. Since COVID-19, online school has become a lot more normal. When it snows, instead of getting a day off to play with friends, students get a day of online learning.

Virtual days are backed by some logic. They keep classes on track with lesson plans by letting the students lead their own education. In some places, when there’s a snow day, schools will remove a different student holiday or require students to attend an extra day of school in May.

There are also some flaws. Sometimes students need a spontaneous day off from school, which isn’t possible with a virtual day. Students also can’t ask their teachers questions like they are usually able to do at school. This leads to a somewhat lackluster learning experience.

Forsyth County has had three snow days this month, on January 10, 21 and 22. Hasini Gotthula, a junior at North, says the virtual days “helped a lot to catch [her] breath and just relax.” When school is virtual, teachers often lighten the workload from what it traditionally is.

However, she also said, “It didn’t feel long enough to be a whole break.” Even though Winter break just ended, January is a stressful month for students.There are many big club events coming up quickly, and coupled with the looming threat of finals and AP exams makes the month particularly daunting. Before the pandemic, students might have been able to take a breath and play in the snow with their friends.

Mylaina Earnhardt, another junior, offers that “Students are so attached to the idea that having a snow day is a day off that when they are assigned work, they feel like they can ignore it.” Students partially feel blindsided by the expectation of continuing school as if it were a normal day, which only leads to further unproductiveness.