This morning, my mom stormed into my room with as much energy as Old Man Winter stormed the Chicagoland area overnight.

“Go get dressed now, you have school today,” my mom said. I walked into the living room and looked out the window. Everything was white. The street was not cleaned at all. ABC 7 played in the background and all I heard was “Chicago land area is canceling…I-94 is not moving…temperatures are dropping.” I was extremely confused as to what was going on at the moment. I washed my face, got dressed, and drank my chocolate milk.

My mom and I put on our snow boots and got ready to go to the car. As I stepped outside, my foot sunk into the snow right under my knee. I stood in the middle of the street and looked at all the cars around. Both of my brother’s cars looked too comfortable where they were. If you didn’t have a four wheel drive, I doubt you were going anywhere.

We got into the car and tried pulling out. My mom hasn’t spoken to me since she told me to get up. She started getting really stressed out as she attempted to pull out.

“I don’t understand why your school isn’t canceled,” she said angrily.

My mother is an immigrant. She does not care if I’m sick, if something hurts, etc. I will always go to school no matter what. Hearing my mom be angry about the fact that I had to go to school today was unbelievable.

As we made it onto Oakton, my mom started to calm down. We were going at 15 mph on a 30. There were a lot of cars headed toward Niles West while there was a blizzard swarming around the school.

“You know, this is actually kind of nice, right?” my mom asked.

Sure it looked nice, but it’d look even nicer if we could have stayed home and watched from our window. District 219 already gave an unnecessary snow day last semester. The weather conditions weren’t as bad nor serious as today. Many streets were not cleaned. Also, this is a high school. There are way too many new drivers. The junior grade is full of new drivers driving in their first snow. For the administration to find it okay to let kids drive in this weather to school is selfish. Especially with all the traffic. Students are put in more of a rush and rushing can cause big problems on the road.

It’s also unfair for those who walk. A good amount of the student body stayed home today. A majority of the people I know that stayed home either walk or drive themselves to school. Parents didn’t want their kids walking in four inches of snow to school. Not everyone owns quality shoes for the snow. Driving is an even bigger concern. Unfortunately, many students don’t have cars with a four-wheel drive which is a big risk.

Not only is this unfair for students, but as well as the teachers. Teachers are just as important as students. A decent amount of teachers had to call in substitutes for their morning classes because they couldn’t make it on time. We should’ve at least had a late arrival so everyone could make it on time, and get to school safely.

Of course, we all want a day off because who really wants to go to school, but that shouldn’t even be in the picture at this point. The lives of students and teachers are worth so much more than just extending the school year a few more days after memorial weekend. We live in Chicago. Our winter is supposed to be like this. Snow days are to be expected and given. I just failed to understand today why I went to school.