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Mt Holyoke | Life

Why Leap Years Are The BEST

Manuela Queiroz Ribas Student Contributor, Mount Holyoke College
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Mt Holyoke chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Leap years. We all know them. Every four years, an extra day gets added to February, leading to February 29th, alongside a total of 366 days in the year. Most people don’t really think much about them (unless their birthday is on February 29th) but I think they’re a neat little phenomenon. Let me tell you why leap years are just so cool.

First, it’s an extra day. A whole extra 24 hours for you to do whatever you want with. You could take a day trip to Boston. You could have an extra shift at work and get your money up. You could just rot in bed all day. Who knows? You decide how to make use of your WHOLE EXTRA DAY! One more day to fully enjoy all the wonders of this beautiful world? Sign me up, please!!

Second, it’s a great representation of how awesome it can be when we come together. Having everyone realize it’s a leap year when they wake up on February 29th and they’re like “Oh, it’s not March? Whoa!!” is kinda cute. I usually see lots of memes online day of and it’s really sweet to watch everyone have fun with this ONE thing. It’s so hard to get people together these days, so if it’s a leap year doing it, I love it.

Last but not least, scientifically speaking, it is a very cool phenomenon. You know how everyone tells you there are 24 hours in a day? Well, that’s not quite accurate. It’s 24 hours and a few leftover minutes. Every four years, those minutes add up to an extra day that we add to February! Isn’t that neat? In sum, leap years are an opportunity to seize the joys in your life, a way for our communities to band together, AND an incredible demonstration of how science always comes together to tie everything up in a pretty bow. Yay for leap years!

hello! class of 2026, neuroscience major, nice to meet you! some stuff I love is my family, my friends, studying, learning, meeting people, talking, reading, writing, eating, traveling, trains, public transportation, road trips, nature, crossing borders, my homeland of Brazil, being a Posse scholar, Williston Library, being at Mount Holyoke, working... but most of all, I love the world. I love love. and I love you!
ps - i write a lot about the past. that means i'm over it <3 u get the gist!