I didn’t go sledding – I had the grumpier kind of snow day, where I had to shovel my car out of the snow and deal with the icy, snow-covered roads. I suppose that means I’m an adult now.

It’s strange how a break from the ordinary changes as we grow. To young children, snow is a welcome change – probably as much because it is interesting as because it cancels school, but still. The system being broken pleases them. If the system stayed broken, they wouldn’t be happy with the consequences, but being broken allows them to do just what they want – play.

When you have a job or a social life or college or whatnot, the snow hurts routine. It impedes and says, you cannot do what you planned to. You must live differently for today, and that’s scary, the same way that power outages scare people. Most people, there basic reaction to a power outage is to try and restore power, or find a generator, or run movies off of their computer while it has power. They strive to replace the downed electric lines with the best substitute available. But power outages grant such a massive opportunity to live differently – to force your family to play poker by candlelight when they’d normally never do anything together, or have a nerf war in your dorm hall which would never happen if people has the lure of electronics. Not that I dislike electronics (I love them), but if given the chance to experience the world in a different way, why not?

And so, just like with power outages, with snow, we try to work past it’s hindrance and make everything as normal as can be. Instead of not driving, we shovel our driveways and bail out our cars. Adults rarely sled or have snowball fights or adapt to the sudden shift in environment; the routine has become too strong, too ingrained. I know I generalize, but I don’t generalize with the intent of patronizing. I love routine; it’s comfortable to me. I could’ve sled today, but didn’t, simply because it was too cold. The different disturbs me.

But maybe it should not. Perhaps that is the key to staying young.