Welcome to Colorado: the land of icy wind and fast-changing weather. When someone chooses to relocate to our area, there are some understood risks. The largest of these is bad weather conditions and hazardous roads during storms.

Obviously, it’s not always as easy to get from Point A to Point B during a storm, and exceptions including delays and days off do need to happen in some cases. But in most cases, Coloradans need to suck it up, leave early and get themselves to school or work.

This past week, Lewis-Palmer had three days off of school due to snow storms, but only two of these snow days were actually necessary. Because of this, the school district has had to add extra days of school in April and May.

According to the district website, they use the National Weather Service and the input of other districts in order to make decisions. But how can they use other districts lead when other districts are in different parts of town with different weather conditions?

Perhaps the blizzard that hit the state is an extreme case, but what about the snow days that happened because it was “too cold outside?” As nice as it was to curl up by a fire, did we really need to waste snow days on those days?

If this we lived in any state north of here, students would be expected to put on a jacket and get themselves to school, no matter what the wind chill was. Coloradans have warmer conditions than many people, but we have got to learn to adapt to difficult weather situations instead of whining about the temperature and staying home.

The bottom line is, it is time for Colorado to grow up. Take a driving course to learn about ice driving, and pull up to your job. Plus, when you are sitting inside, does it really matter what the outside weather is like?