Leap Year Possibilities

January 2024

This month we asked out students to write a what they will do
with the extra day Leap year gives them.

My Extra Day

Gracie Smith
MSMU Class of 2027

In all honesty, the idea of having an extra 24 hours every 4 years seems irrelevant to me. While people make these grand plans for leap day, do any of them actually see it through? For instance, this year our leap day is on a Thursday. How can anybody make any plans to do anything when our extra day is in the middle of the week? There is no use taking the day off for a long weekend because then you would have to take Friday off as well, and that’s too much. Not to mention, it's pointless skipping classes on Thursday for a long weekend because again, Friday. While realistically speaking may not satisfy our desire for an extra day, that doesn’t mean we can’t fantasize about the perfect "extra" day.

On my perfect "extra" day, I would do a day trip to Disney World. This seems very controversial compared to what I previously said about leap days being pointless. However, this is fantasy. Believe it or not, I have constructed the perfect way to have the perfect day in Walt Disney World. Allow me to lay out the itinerary.

First thing is first, waking up at 2 a.m. to get ready, gather our things, and get to the airport by 4:30 a.m. for a flight to Orlando at 6 a.m. Of course, we have to allow ourselves some wiggle room since airports can be so unpredictable. Not only that, but we have to get food before we get on the plane. Also, security is a whole other issue. A flight from BWI to MCO takes approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes if there are no delays and little turbulence. This gives us 2 hours and 10 minutes to, hopefully, sleep and prepare for our magical day.

Landing in MCO at roughly 8:15 a.m., we have to travel from our gate to the baggage claim—not to pick up our luggage but to meet our Uber driver. Once we locate our driver and get in the vehicle, we can estimate around 30-45 minutes to get to Disney’s Magic Kingdom. PERFECT! Magic Kingdom opens at 9 a.m., so we’d be right on time.

Arriving at Disney’s Magic Kingdom, we can begin to use our mobile app to book rides for certain times, getting the most out of our visit. Designating roughly three hours to Magic Kingdom, this gives us plenty of time to ride the rides we desire, shop, sightsee, and character meet. Given how many times I have visited Magic Kingdom, I would be in and out, with a dole whip to go, of course.

Leaving the park around noon, we would take a bus to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Due to the irregular bus patterns, we can assume that this would take about an hour to do. Immediately entering Animal Kingdom, we can use our mobile app to start booking some rides while heading over to Flame Tree Barbeque for lunch—easily the best restaurant in that park. In Animal Kingdom, I would designate around 2-2½ hours since there are only three main attractions to ride—Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest, and the Kilimanjaro Safari. With this, we would head off to our next park—Hollywood Studios.

Hollywood Studios is always such a fun park. Similar to Animal Kingdom, this park can be completed rather quickly with help from the mobile app and booking rides. In this park, there are four main attractions to hit—Rock n’ Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, Slinky-Dog Dash, and Mickey’s Runaway Railroad. However, Rock n’ Rollercoaster is closed for refurbishment until the summer of 2024, so we can cross this one off our list (unfortunately). I would designate the same amount of time for this park as we did for Animal Kingdom. When leaving Hollywood Studios, we would take advantage of the Skyliner transportation method to travel to Epcot at around 5-6 p.m.

Once in Epcot, we would walk the world showcase enjoying all the food from countries around the world—this is what we would count as our dinner. However, there is one attraction I would say is a must, and that is TestTrack. Saving Epcot as our last park is most desired since it is the park that closes at the latest—typically around 11 p.m. This means that we would have as much time as we wanted in any of the parks, theoretically, and not have to worry about not making every park. However, it is unlikely that we would stay until park closing since we would need to Uber back to MCO airport to catch our flight back home to BWI.

With all of this being said, that is how I would choose to spend my leap day in a perfect world. It would probably take at least two days to recover from this adventure, but it would be worth it in my opinion. Disney has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. From my first trip in 2012 to my most recent in 2022, I can say that I have officially become a Disney adult. Over the past ten years, I have visited Disney eight times and am currently planning my next visit for 2025—fingers crossed.

If I were given an extra day to do whatever I pleased, I would go to Disney for a day and leave all my problems here in a heartbeat. Nevertheless, this year our leap day is a Thursday… and that makes it rather impossible to really do anything with it. That’s not to say that in other four years, or eight years, or 12 years, it might fall on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. When that happens, you can believe I’ll be doing my much-needed day trip to Disney.

Read other articles by Gracie Smith

February 29th: a rare opportunity

Devin Owen
MSMU Class of 2026

Every four years, our calendars have gifted us with the rare occurrence of an extra day in February—a bonus 24 hours that disrupts our annual rhythm. But what to do in a day that only occurs every four years? Lucky for me, Mount St. Mary’s will be on spring break the week of the leap year for 2024, so from February 24th until March 1st, I will be sitting on a sunny beach in Florida from sunrise to sunset; with that being said, February 29th will be a day spent soaking in the warm Florida sun and reminiscing on my favorite feelings of home—which typically involve the beach and summer break.

My favorite memories always involve the warm summer sun, time spent with family, and days at the beach in Cape Henlopen State Park; these are memories of home, the ones I hold on to tightly as the cold, winter air hits at the Mount and my seasonal depression kicks in. Instead of going back to the cold air of my hometown this time of year, I’m lucky enough to have planned a vacation with my boyfriend for spring break. And so, to end the month, I’ll be spending a week curing this seasonal depression and enjoying the beauty of warm, sunny days. The 29th will actually be our last ‘official’ day of vacation; our last day to enjoy the warm sunny days offered to us by the beautiful state of Florida, as we will be headed to the Fort Lauderdale airport around 6 a.m. of March 1st to catch our flight back home. It’s all timed so perfectly: the extra day of February is giving us our last day of solitude and relaxation before we head back to reality.

In all honesty, February 29th is a day I forgot about. Technically, I forgot about leap years completely up until we talked about what to write about this month. It really is an interesting phenomenon though. I mean, why do we even have leap years? What is the science behind it? How exactly does it work? Well, I can fill you in with my limited knowledge from high school…and I apologize if I don’t do the science justice with my explanation! Leap years occur due to the need to align our calendar with the Earth's orbit around the sun, and because the earth takes about 365 days (give or take a couple decimals) to orbit the sun once, if we allow our calendars to proceed without any adjustments, they will gradually fall out of sync with the astronomical year based on this orbit. From the beginning of time, adjustments have been made to try and fix this idea.

For example, I remember growing up being taught about how early civilizations, such as the Egyptians and Romans, were aware of the discrepancy between the solar year and the calendar year and in cases such as the Romans, a calendar was made with a 355-day year with an occasional intercalary (which means the insertion of extra time) month added to synchronize it with the solar year. The concept for the calendars we follow now, though, is based off of Pope Gregory XIII’s introduction of the ‘Gregorian Calendar’ in 1582, which refined the leap year rule, therefore allowing the calendar year length to be closer to the solar year, and thus reducing the discrepancy brought forth by other calendars of the past. As I said earlier, the current leap year system also follows the rules established by the Gregorian calendar: a year is considered a leap year if it is divisible by 4, except for years divisible by 100. However, years divisible by 400 are still considered leap years; essentially, this concept is based off of multiples of fours—at least that’s the easiest way I have found to remember it! This system has provided a close approximation of the solar year and helps to keep our calendar in sync with the Earth's orbit around the sun! This, my friends, is science at its finest!

One of the downsides to this day though, is everyone who has a birthday on February 29th…I mean, they don’t get to celebrate their actual birthday on the day except for every four years when it finally comes around again! Funnily enough, my best friend is going to be having a baby in late February. She is actually due on my other nephew’s birthday, the 24th! Small world, isn’t it! There is a chance though that she could have this sweet baby boy on the 29th instead, and poor Easton won’t get to celebrate his birthday on the actual day aside from those years by a multiple of four. While on the topic of birthdays, my dad made a point as I was writing today about how every four years, he has to wait an extra day to celebrate his own birthday. My family really enjoy making a big deal out of birthdays and my dad is the biggest celebration enthusiast of us all. Last year for his 50th, he took a trip to Cancun! I bet he wished it was a leap year for that last year, he would’ve gotten an extra day to spend on vacation.

It really is so interesting to look at the science behind our daily lives; I mean, we are told that the world works a certain way, and it influences our lives for eternity, or until someone new makes a point that changes our way of viewing the world. I was never one who quite cared for science, but I can’t help it but be completely intrigued by the phenomenon here! Frankly, I am excited to see what the year of 2024—the year of the leap year—has in store for me. So far, it is looking pretty good! How I cannot wait to be spending February 29th on the beach, fully embracing the resolutions I made this year to take time to myself and do good by me! I hope everyone else reading this gets to enjoy this extra day as well: by all means make a cake, have a special dinner, do something that makes you feel good, and use this day as an excuse to celebrate life!

Read other articles by Devin Owen

Twenty-four hours

Dolores Hans
MSMU class of 2025

It is hard to wrap my brain around the fact that there is an extra day coming up because it is just another Thursday. I will admit that in a world where time passes far too quickly and laughs as we desperately try to find a moment of joyfulness, having an additional twenty-four hours seems daunting. Twenty-four extra hours, but at least eight will be spent sleeping, and many more will be spent doing the seemingly mundane parts of life we spend most other days doing anyway. There is so much I could do with that time. So much I wish I could do. I could write a letter to everyone I have ever loved telling them how much they mean to me. I could lie at the top of a grassy hill, feeling the wind pass through me as if I am nothing but a blade of grass. I could take my siblings out for ice cream and on an adventure, trying to reclaim the wonder I felt as a child. I could read a book at the foot of a weeping willow and weep alongside it as the sun sets, recalling those whom I miss who have passed, because it has been too long since I have allowed them to cross my mind. I could prepare yet another twelve-hour date with my beloved, and we could delight in how awesome it is to be completely in love. Honestly, I could spend twenty-four hours just looking at him, hearing him play guitar, and finding ways to make him smile. I could spend the whole day learning new recipes and perfecting my own, so I can add my own cookbook to the stacks on my desk. I could go out, breathe deep, feel everything, and live.

Alas, my day will likely be spent on my couch, recovering from my appointment at the dentist, probably deleting photos to clear up storage on my phone, and going crazy because I long to be with my dearest friends here in Maryland. It will probably be cold, so I won’t be outdoors basking in the sunlight and hearing the birds sing their melodious songs. I will probably clean up after my siblings and fall asleep with the sounds of the television on instead of the faint sound of the cars on Route 15.

Why must this extra day be at the end of February? When the earth is covered in a delicate layer of snow, wind ripping at the glistening fractals, blowing cold air through the cracks in our windows. When the people of the world are in the middle of the chaos of work and school. It will be just another Thursday. Why do we create such a poor stigma about how we spend our time, adding to the pressure not only to live rightly as we would any other day, but to make this one count? Twenty-four hours. Why are we presented with a blessing, only for it to be revealed that it was just a facade for the ordinary and tiresome, taunting us with the idea of something more.

I will be on spring break prior to and during this leap day. How ironic, no, how cruel is it that every day of my break prior to the extra twenty-four hours, I could be spending with the love of my life, exploring nature, and feeling happiness like never before. But when that leap day comes around, I will be hundreds of miles away from him in a mundane world of appointments and busy work. When people ask me how I spent my leap day, this rare and supposedly fruitful day, I will simply say that I spent it with my family, because it is too hard to admit without shame that I did not live life to the fullest. I did not seize the day. I did not lay on a grassy hill or watch the sunset or write letters.

Although, I guess that’s the way of time. Time teases us with its presence and acts as though it is a victim of neglect, believing we do not appreciate it or see its value. It would have us believe that we are careless and joyless, seeing time as only something to be lost. In actuality though, time is an oppressor. It rears its face towards us, pressuring us to make the most of it and take the gifts it offers us even though they are poisoned. It feeds our minds with images of warmth and jubilation, only to shame us for not taking advantage of the sun that didn’t shine and the joy that had no name. It exploits our desires and coerces us to accept the empty promises it provides. It presents itself as an under-appreciated gem, but truly it is a master of despair.

That is, until we change our minds to accepting this truth, and embracing it. Instead of saying "make every moment count because soon this time will be gone," believing time is a gift and we must appreciate it, ultimately causing pain if we don’t, let’s say "do what makes you happy as often as you can, and even with time against you, you will thrive."

There will come a day when my life catches up to my dreams. Spending unbroken time with my love, cooking new recipes, writing letters, taking kids on adventures, and all the joys that come from raising kids, teaching, and being married, all things that I see in my future. One day, it won’t be so daunting to have a leap day, because I will already be living the life that consists of all the ways I wish I could’ve been spending extra time. One day, I could spend my leap day at the top of a grassy hill having a picnic with my family while my husband smiles and plays guitar, and the kids eat ice cream while reading. And there I will be, writing them each a letter as the sun sets, feeling the wind pass through me, breathing deep, feeling everything, living.

Read other articles by Dolores Hans

Life’s Limits

Claire Doll
MSMU Class of 2024

Humans often struggle with the concept of limits. There is limited time to travel, limited time to pursue our careers, and limited time to spend with family and friends. In fact, there’s limited time on this earth. We plan for so much because it’s all we know. Life is short, so do it all! It’s what we hear all the time, and it’s a statement filled with pressure. Since when is there the time to "do it all"?

This year, we have been granted an extra 24 hours in 2024. I’ll be honest—I’ve never really thought much of the leap year. I have one friend who was born on February 28th during a leap year, so we laugh about that, but it’s never crossed my mind otherwise. In fact, I didn’t know that 2024 had one extra day until I was assigned to write about it. But after some research, I realize that it’s quite a gift. It’s a little loophole in the whole system: extra time. We could always use extra time.

The last leap year was 2020. Anyone who has any memory of that year knows how haunting, eerie, and unbelievable the events of 2020 were. The more I think about it, the beginning and end of my college years are bookended by leap years. The way I see it, this year, I have more time to enjoy my dwindling moments at Mount St. Mary’s and await the future. And it’s hard, when you’re on the brink of a vast change and you can’t help but plan for the months and years ahead. It’s hard to enjoy the now. But this extra 24 hours, in this transformative year, could help.

I have 122 days until graduation. If this were an ordinary year, I’d only have 121.

February 29th, 2024 falls on a Thursday. I think Thursday might be my favorite day of the week; there’s a sense of anticipation for the weekend without the disruption of routine, and you still have Friday to get through, and then the weekend itself. Only, my weekends will be from Thursday to Tuesday, due to having no classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, giving me probably the most relaxed and flexible schedule I’ll ever have. Sometimes, I joke to my friends that I will be living the retired life this spring. I’m able to work out when I want, travel on long weekends, schedule lunch dates in the middle of the day—all on a fixed income, too! On Tuesday and Thursdays, I’ll be taking three classes: ethics, personal finance, and ceramics. I haven’t decided quite how the structure of my days will go yet, but I intend to give myself time to sleep in, get in some movement, and have free time as well.

I want to truly soak up my last months of college, and I fully believe that this leap year was meant to help me. Although an extra 24 hours is not a lot in the grand scheme of things, it grants me one extra day of the Mount experience, one extra day with my best friends. One extra day to be 22. One extra day in my life, often gone unnoticed—but not this time.

So, let’s imagine it’s February 29th. I wake up to one more day in February, in one of the most underrated months of the year. If I’m lucky—if we’re all lucky—it will snow. Maybe I’ll wake up to fresh flakes dancing in the air, or ice painting the roads. Or maybe it’ll be an ordinary day with ordinary, crisp, February weather. It’s Thursday, and to my surprise, I’m already on spring break—can you believe the Mount’s spring break starts in February and bleeds into the month of March? Last year, I spent spring break at the beach with my friends, and it was freezing. Wind sweeping sand in the air, and icy cold ocean water, not yet warmed by the sun. I had to leave this trip early because my sister and I had also planned a trip to Nashville. I found myself in Delaware one day, and the next day, on a plane to Tennessee. The year before, I was in London with my very best friends, exploring the historic, beautiful city. Now writing this, I realize am so fortunate to have amazing spring breaks that I can reflect upon.

This year, I want to do the same. Go somewhere I’ve never been.

I’m planning a trip with my boyfriend to Boston because I’ve always wanted to go, and I’ve never been that up North before. Or maybe I’ll hang out with some friends and travel to another totally new and random spot. What they say about college spring break is true: you need to soak up every last minute of it. Travel and be with friends and enjoy the moment. I think we were meant to have spring break during the leap day, during that extra 24 hours.

I challenge you this leap year to spend February 29th intentionally. What are your favorite, little moments of the day? Making your coffee in the morning and having that first sip? Driving to work and passing scenic views? Your lunch break? Finally getting home and settling on the couch? Reading a book or watching a movie before bed? Or, do you find yourself with some free time this leap year? Who would you be with? What would you do? What spots can you explore nearby, or far away? I urge you not to waste this extra day. It is a lucky thing to go to bed on February 28th and wake up on February 29th, if only for every four years.

Like I said, life is full of limits. Choose to spend your time wisely. Do not feel pressured to fit everything into this leap day, but rather take it slow and truly reflect on the fortunate experience of having an extra 24 hours to live. For one day, the limits are stretched just a bit. Enjoy it.

Read other articles by Claire Doll

Read Past Editions of Four Years at the Mount