Ahhhh, winter has finally arrived, and with it, snow. For some, this means cozy movie nights, hefty blankets, and oversized mugs of hot chocolate piled high with marshmallows. For others, it means enjoying the snow as much as possible. Frankly, I enjoy the snow too, but…I’m not exactly the type to ignore a warning sign screaming, “WARNING, DO NOT STEP ON THE ICE.”
Unfortunately, not everyone feels the same way. To many people, these signs seem more like suggestions than rules. After all, some thrill-seekers love skating along the edge of danger, both literally and figuratively. And once the snow falls, these warning signs pop up everywhere, just in time for a few brave (reckless?) souls to test their limits in the name of “fun.”
At first glance, the problem seems simple—signs exist for a reason. But those who ignore them seem to operate without a moral pause: that brief moment where you stop and ask, “Is this actually a good idea?”. Instead, they move forward confidently, consequences pushed aside, or simply hesitate long enough to convince themselves it’ll be fine anyway.
Of course, ignoring signs always leads to results. If the signs weren’t there before, they must have magically appeared after something went wrong. If they were already there, then consequences should follow suit—usually involving administrators and some very uncomfortable conversations.
While students get famously creative when it comes to excuses, the responsibility still lands on us Pelicans. The pattern of seeing signs feels oddly familiar when it comes to applications and deadlines: college applications, trips abroad, forms, submissions, as if everyone has a marker they’re supposed to notice. Ignoring them doesn’t make them disappear; it just turns them into a last-minute scramble that could have been avoided.
Circling back to the idea of consequences, signs show up just as clearly in your friendly relationships, though I’ll spare us a deep dive into personal drama. Your friendships hold a key aspect of your life at Loomis beyond, shaping your day-to-day experience. With these friendships, of course, come signs: distancing, betrayal, distrust, and more, which all lead to either a genesis or a cessation in the typical sense. They don’t always lead to dramatic endings; sometimes they lead to understanding, or something in between. Understanding plays the largest part with signs: you can choose to interpret them, or you can ignore them. That choice determines what comes next in your future, whether it’s a trip to the Dean’s Office or something much worse. Regardless, the moral of this article is simple: don’t ignore signs…Unless it’s sunny without an inch of ice on the ground.
