WOODBURY – With winter officially in the rearview, the memories of Region 14’s seven snow days are a magical thing. Being able to sleep in, relax, and watch the snow fall all day long can be an enjoyable experience for many. But at what point is enough, enough? 

For NHS students planning on earning–and saving–money for life beyond graduation, these snow days are a budgetary burden. 

This school year’s winter has been one of the harshest in recent New England history; totaling a grand amount of 45-65 inches, according to CT Insider. With over 7 snow days in the last few months, students have had more than enough time to relax and watch the snow fall from their bedroom windows. 

At first what was once exciting and enjoyable, has now become dreadful and almost unavoidable. 

After the most recent snow day on Tuesday, March 3rd, the end of the school year has now been pushed back 8 days further into June. The last day of school for students has now been pushed all the way from June 11th, to June 19th. 

Many students have complained about not wanting to be in school until the near end of June, but seniors especially have expressed uniquely prominent complaints. 

“Summer has felt short enough in the past,” Nonnewaug senior James Wolf said. “Now with college coming up in early August, and these first few weeks being taken away from us, it will feel shorter than ever.” 

While Nonnewaug’s doors don’t open until late August or even early September for the new school year, current seniors will be away at their chosen colleges by mid, to even early, August. 

Thus making this summer one of the shortest possible for current seniors at Nonnewaug. 

One problem arising for many seniors because of this issue is the lack of time for students to work, thus making accumulating those summer savings much harder than usual. 

“I try to work as much as I can in the summer,” said Nettleton. “But now I’m on a time crunch to save up as much as I can before August. Not being able to work that extra 3-4 weeks that I usually can will definitely make a difference in my ability to save up before August.”

With three or four less summer weeks for students, saving up money for college tuition, books, and other expenses will become quite the challenge for college-bound seniors to overcome. 

Senior at Nonnewaug Eddie Longo shares this concern among many students preparing for college this summer. 

“I’m currently trying to work as much as I can to build a solid savings for college,” said Longo. “But now with this short summer, it’s going to be much harder to accumulate those savings I’ll need for college this August. Money has to be saved for books, technology, living space needs, and more. But now, I may need to look elsewhere for my source of savings.”