By: Andie Scott [Staff Writer] @KewtheRavager

A popular debate during the winter season is whether or not the amount of snow days is a blessing or a curse. Sure, at the time, getting to miss a day of school seems like a pretty sweet deal. The last one even gave us a rare four-day-weekend! But, the argument against the snow days is that we’ll have to make them all up sooner or later, usually tacked on at the end of the year, and extending the time everyone has to stay in school well into the summer. So, which one is really better? Does it even matter in the end? The answer is no, but it’s easier to analyze these two subjects in detail first.

Both options have their merits. Snow days, no matter when they occur, offer an escape, a nice break from school for a day. Some use it to sleep, some use it to do homework they previously neglected to do, and some use it to hang around their house on the internet. Whatever students do, it’s a small slice of paradise. But why have a slice when one can have the whole pie? The fewer snow days spring up throughout the year, the faster summer vacation (the royal king of all vacations) comes, and there isn’t a thing wrong with that. (Some would argue that summer vacation is boring, but that’s a story for another day. Spoiler alert, though: Those people are crazy.)

Make no mistake, as fun as snow days are, they have their consequences. Snow days can interrupt crucial things like quizzes and due dates and throw off the number of days one has to work on a project. The news that there is a snow day can also come up late, making a student wake up early anyway, only to learn there’s no school.

So, which is better? The argument really comes down to ‘Victory to those who wait’ vs. instant gratification. And while there’s a lot of interesting philosophical arguments that can stem from that, let’s just face the fact that the number of snow days isn’t really ours to decide anyway. Hope for as many or as few as you want, but Mother Nature will do whatever it feels like in the end, so instead of complaining, make the most of it.

Welcome to Iowa, folks.