Just as third term ends, as it did last Friday, the countdown to summer begins. A great restlessness develops in the school’s crowded hallways and classrooms, and an inaudible voice screams over the typical high school ruckus — “nine more weeks until summer vacation!”

Of course this voice, though silent, manifests itself in the tapping of multiple tiny keypads as teenagers — particularly high school seniors — text the exact number of seconds left until freedom to everyone they have added to their cells’ digital phone book every few minutes.

Last Friday was also the first official day of spring, an unofficially national holiday celebrated by many, especially teenagers. After all, we have more than warmer weather to anticipate — although the weather forecast for this week looks awfully grim with snow showers and cooler temperatures. In just nine short weeks, we will enjoy a long break from the daily routine of excessive homework, all-knowing teachers with the power to crush dreams by awarding one too many “F”s, and drama that would make a soap opera character’s fictional hair fall out.

And that’s just for those of us who aren’t graduating. Being a junior, I can only imagine how difficult it would be to contain myself if this were the last fourth term of my high school career.

For these final nine weeks, as the days grow warmer and the skies bluer, teenagers like myself will be forced to sit through half-hearted lectures, book work, tests, and worst of all, homework — all of which will take twice as long to complete due to the time wasted daydreaming of all-night parties and outings with friends. Most of which, particularly in the case of the former, will be terminated by parents before they actually begin.

Our motivation is lost somewhere in all this excitement, and every year this loss of interest becomes evident as truancy increases and grades drop. Slowly, our numbers dwindle as one student after another falls ill with spring fever. Considering the contagious nature of this strange, incurable disease, gathering large numbers of infected teenagers is clearly dangerous.

Thus, we teenagers ought to propose a new law to counteract the movement to forever end our beloved summer vacation and prevent the spread of this terrible disease. Our brains need the time to recuperate after months of straining to memorize math equations the majority of us will never actually use in our future careers, let alone our current positions as professional burger-flippers.

We need time to catch up with the latest and greatest video games and time to participate in our favorite recreational activities, such as dating and organizing loud social functions to occur after curfew in an unsuspecting parent’s backyard.

Not to mention teens with summer jobs who lack financial obligations are bound to spend money as quickly as they make it, therefore serving as an effective, yet inexpensive, economic stimulus plan.

These are all strong, practical arguments. I’ll get some buttons and signs so we can start campaigning.

We, the teenagers of the United States, propose a new law: School will be officially banned on any day during fourth term when the temperature rises above 75 degree Fahrenheit.

Hey, we already have snow days. Can’t we have a few sun days, too?

Emma Penrod is a junior at Tooele High School.