Hurry, grab an ice cube and put it in your toilet. Don’t flush. Grab a silver spoon and place it under your pillow. Finally, wear your pajamas inside out and backwards. My 9-year-old sister told me that this will guarantee you a snow day, the type of snow day you'd have as a kid where the rest of the world stops.

Snow days meant 24 hours where nothing else mattered but the snow.

The automated call would come around 6:30 A.M. on our landline: “Hello, this is your superintendent of Hampton Township School District calling to let you know that our school district will be closed due to severe weather. Thank you, have a nice day.” One phone call changed everything.

I would run to our storage closet, dig around for my snow gear, and put it on over my pajamas. We’d sprint out the door and down the porch stairs to our garage, where we kept our plastic, red toboggan sled.

The trek to our neighborhood hill felt like miles in the blistering cold, but absolutely nothing could stop us. We’d take turns pushing each other down the hill until we were tired or someone's glove fell off, and they started crying that they were frostbitten.

We’d run inside to the hot chocolate waiting for us, probably made by one of our poor babysitters who didn’t get a snow day because adults don’t get snow days.

Adults still have to go to work. Adults still have assignments due. Adults have to worry if there is enough food in the house in case we get snowed in. Adults have to worry if the power is going to go out. Adults have to worry about keeping extra jugs of water in case the pipes freeze. Adults don’t get snow days. For adults, the world doesn’t stop.

What happened to snow days?!

What happened to the days of care-free fun we had as kids? When we didn’t have to get up for 8 A.M.s and walk through 2-degree weather to a class that even the professor doesn’t want to be at. When we didn’t have to carefully walk on the pavement with the fear of slipping into city slush. We didn't have to worry about making it through the weekend, because we thought it would all work out.

So with all this being said, if we do get snow, I urge you to take a snow day. Let the world around you stop. Hang with your best friends, make hot chocolate (and maybe spike it), have a snowball fight, go sledding in Schenley Park, and enjoy a day our younger selves once dreamed of.