Is March the Worst Month of the School Year?

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As seen here, class is in session at Arrowhead for 22 out of the 31 days in March 2017.

In March, St. Patrick’s Day and a slew of college basketball games dominate TV networks, but besides that, the month does not have much to offer.

The majority of college students get to have the pleasure of spring break during this month, but that is not the case for students of Arrowhead High School. At Arrowhead, the month of March kicks off the start of a five week span of full school weeks.
The very nature of that statement tends to send shivers down the spine of students (and perhaps some staff) alike. So, that raises the question: is March the worst month of the year?
“I find myself really despising the month of March for several reasons. First of all, it’s the start of the track and field season and while I obviously like being in track and have been for the last three years, starting the season just always seems to be dreadful. Mostly because we’re moving from little amounts of difficult exercise that we choose to do at our leisure, or for some kids, not at all, right into five day weeks of extraneous activity. I tend to feel incredibly sore after the first couple of weeks no matter how hard I train in the offseason. That’s just a testament to the hard work we do right off the bat. Even worse is that our meets in the month of March are always indoor meets and to put it simply, running on an indoor track stinks. It’s a lot smaller, so you have to take way more turns even if you’re just doing something as simple as a 200m dash. Also, it’s usually really hard to breath on the indoor tracks because there’s such poor airflow in the buildings and trying to go full speed on a wood floor is not by any means the most fun thing in the world,” said senior sprinter Jack Vento.
“The other thing I really don’t like about March is how inconsistent the weather is. One day it could be 60 degrees and sunny, the next day it could be 32 and snowing. For track practice, I will find myself bringing summer appropriate clothes one day and then all of a sudden, I’m practically hauling in a snowsuit for the next three days. I remember last year in March it was about 40-50 degrees all week leading up to Spring Break and then by the Thursday that break started, there was pretty much a blizzard outside. I had already bought tickets for a movie two weeks prior for that day, so there me and a few friends were, driving to the Menominee Falls theater in weather that looked like that one scene in It’s A Wonderful Life. It was not fun,” Vento said.

“I see this time of the year as being incredibly important. It’s not quite being able to ‘see the light at the end of the tunnel,’ however you don’t have as much time left as there appears to be. If students can manage to hang on, or better yet, improve during this month, the rest of the semester will be a much less stressful time for them and make it seem to go by faster,” says AP Macroeconomics and U.S. History teacher Joseph Paul.

“The only thing that makes March somewhat tolerable is March Madness. Getting to watch all the basketball and making brackets with friends is always a lot of fun. As far as everything else though, the month feels like a drag. If it weren’t for March madness, I’d say it’d be the worst month,” said senior Max Dambeck.

Although there are mixed opinions about March. What is conclusive, however, is that even with some exciting events, the month of March is at some degree of unfavorability to a notable amount of students at Arrowhead. According to a poll of 20 students, this comes from the long stretch of full weeks without break.