In case you didn’t know, we’re in a leap year. It’s a phenomenon that occurs every four years since the calendar year and earth’s orbit don’t quite align. It actually takes Earth 365 days and about six hours to orbit the sun. So, we add in an extra day at the end of February to keep the calendar consistent with the seasons.
Without a leap day, after hundreds of years, Halloween might be in the spring, celebrated with flowers rather than crisp fallen leaves. The solstices would eventually land on different months, and our concept of time and seasons would falter.
I’m thankful that the leap day keeps the holidays more chilly and lets my birthday fall in the warm summertime.
However, the concept of leap day makes me think about how deeply we’re all rooted in this reality. We see seasons as certainties, but what if that wasn’t the case? Maybe we can make leap day our own holiday, where we could detach from our reality and consider what things would be like if they were flipped upside down.
My family and I used to celebrate leap day with pancakes for dinner — classic “opposite day” fashion, but I suggest that we all take this concept even further.
What if we celebrated rainy days instead of spending them locked inside? What if people rushed out to the streets to bask in the clouds and bathe in the downpour? What if sunlight was the ambiance that adorned our stay-at-home days?
Leap day falls a few weeks before the spring solstice, where gray skies and volatile weather drag on. It’s a perfect time to turn our weather and world upside down. Go mix up your routine, eat at a random restaurant for lunch and talk to people you’d never consider talking to. I can only see something good — or at least funny and interesting — coming out of it.
In fact, Ireland uses this day to flip traditional gender roles in the old leap day tradition for women to get down on one knee and propose to their partner. Feel free to take this idea if you’d like.
As for me, I plan to celebrate the leap day by implementing some changes into my ordinary daily routine.
I’ll start the day by using the Calm app. I’ve always heard about the benefits of waking up and listening to meditations to help you practice gratitude and mindfulness, but I never gave it a try. On February 29, instead of waking up in a hurried rush to get to class, I’ll wake up early and spend some time on myself, which may prove beneficial.
Next, I’d like to try something completely insane and not wear my AirPods when walking to class. I’ve become so accustomed to listening to music while walking down Commonwealth Avenue that I can barely remember what the raw street sounds like. I’m going to challenge myself to not enter my little Spotify world, and be more in touch with my surroundings.
We’ll see whether this opens my eyes to a new routine or just leaves me feeling unsatisfied. Either way, I think that leap day is the perfect time to try it.
Now, as a notorious picky eater, I’d like to try something very challenging. On leap day, I’m going to do something very far away from my comfort zone and eat the foods that I have callously sworn off.
Maybe I’ll try olives, despite years of my younger self insisting that they taste like pickled tires. I could put yellow mustard on a hot dog rather than my trusty ketchup. I could eat beans and miraculously get over their evil and mushy texture. Eventually, I might find that I’ve grown into liking something that I’ve always hated.
If our whole concept of time is based on something so abstract, I don’t see why we should take everything else so seriously — at least not everyday.
I propose that from now on we celebrate Feb. 29 as our day to dare. Whether you choose to sing a song on the BU Shuttle or show up to class in pajamas, I hope you also take the day to try something completely out of your comfort zone.
Who cares? It’s leap day!
