5 Ways to Make Leap Year a Teachable Moment

It's Winter Break, and you wish you'll not come back to the university on February 22. You don't dread the cold. You also don't mind shoveling the snow in front of your house. It's rather hard to focus during winter.

You asked your housemate after noticing his intense expression on more than one occasion. It turned out that he missed his deadline. He would go out on a date on February 29. (He don't want to miss another paper, so he finished it on February 14.) You've been thinking about Leap Year for weeks. It would be cool to do something different. It will be a special day, as it happens every four years.

You came up with a short list:

Read Greco-Roman mythology. Your coursemates were a bunch of snobs after they suppressed their laughter during a lecture. You were a huge fan of Rick Riordan's works, you said. They might have outgrown their interest in Young-adult fiction, but your professor (in Victorian literature) looked at you thoughtfully. It made you uneasy. (She wasn't impressed at your last paper. It wasn't like your first.) The native of San Antonio, Texas will release another series on Greco-Roman mythology this spring. It will be called “The Trials of Apollo”. You wonder if it has something to do with Artemis. (Sibling rivalry is not uncommon.) It could be a father-son relationship. (The god of sun won't watch "I Never Sang for My Father".) It might be life at Olympus. (It can be boring.) It happens that the first book will be about the Oracle of Delphi. You don't know much about it, so you might surf the Web every other day.

Watch a movie. You've seen "Dark City" many times, even argued with your housemates. They don't fancy the Kafkaesque approach to the story. You thought otherwise, as Alex Proyas had a Midas touch. Much have been said about the casting of "Gods of Egypt", which was an old issue. (No one would recall it during screening.) You enjoy popcorn flicks, but you won't dare tell anyone in the English Department. (You're getting tired of arguing with snobs.) You don't like the posters, as it seemed like an idea of a ten-year-old.

Try to learn something new. You're having second thoughts about it, as you've been on information overload these past months. But you want to learn how to drive. Not that you don't mind someone behind the wheels, but it will be nice to be in the driver's seat. You'll ask your brother about it.

Read about a new place. You envy your brother for taking a leap last year, when he decided to go on a backpacking adventure. He was afflicted with wanderlust after a summer in Europe a few years ago. Your parents didn't like it, even advised him to be sensible. But he assured them that he would look for a job. You would suspect that he met a girl on the other side of the Atlantic, and they would be partners in crime. You were drawn to exotic places after your best mate suggested Indiana Jones.

Imagine what one more day means. One more night of sleep. And this one is a comforting thought.