On Friday, January 22, 2016, the first signs of Snow Storm Jonas emerged as innocent looking flurries of snowflakes dusted yards and streets. Within hours, the free falling flurries soon became a rapid decent of snow lasting for a total of three days, leaving the state of Maryland with a range of 10-35 inches of snow according to the Washington Post. With the mountainous amount of snow, transportation became a near impossibility causing countless businesses and schools to close. The Prince George’s County Public School System was among the many Maryland school systems that remained closed during the blizzard, giving students a relaxing six days off from school to wait out the dangers of the Snowpocalypse.

The school-less days proved to be quite agreeable to the majority of ERHS students, providing them with “winter break part two,” according to junior Sunni Moon. “I was just glad that I was finally able to relax at home and take a break from school. I mostly just watched TV the entire time,” Moon stated. Sophomore Hyung Joon Jang was similarly content with school being cancelled stating “I was finally able to catch up on my sleep. I shoveled a lot of snow and did my homework.” Senior Mitchell Moore also took part in shoveling snow for much of his time off. “I went around the neighborhood and made money shoveling snow for my neighbors. It was exhausting but it was worth it, I made a decent amount,” Moore recalled.

Besides shoveling the massive amount of snow, students were also able to enjoy other snow related activities. Junior Linda Quach spent a fair amount of time in the outdoors and proudly stated, “I built a snowman.” Senior Maurcus Robinson also made an effort to spend time enjoying the snow. “I went sledding with my friends for a few hours and it was a lot of fun. We went to a really steep hill which worked great with our sleds.”

While numerous students enjoyed the variety of outdoor activities the snow brought, many students spent their inside with minimal exposure to the frozen outdoors. Freshman Wonderboy Johnson stated that he “mostly stayed inside and watched TV,” a popular pastime among the majority of students. Besides watching television, junior Roslyn Brehl recalled that she was able to reorganize her entire closet while sophomore Ezra Cho spent time reading a biography about Benjamin Franklin and playing video games.

Although the multitude of days off will most likely need to be made up at the end of the school year, the snow days provided “more fun than summer would have,” according to Cho.