If you haven’t heard, there is an extra day in this year’s calendar, and that would be today, Feb. 29. While the tradition of leap year exists to keep the calendar aligned with the earth’s revolution around the sun, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t spend these 24 hours doing something out of the ordinary.
The next time you’ll get to experience this calendar day is in four years, and that means four years older, four years wiser, four years to get to make mistakes, and four years to grow. Don’t waste this day! Instead, celebrate these extra 24 hours in the following ways.
Celebrate With Some Cheap Food
Sometimes it pays to only have your birthday once every four years. For those who bring ID proof that they were born on leap day, Pizza Hut, Hard Rock Café and Olive Garden are all offering special deals for those celebrating.
If you weren’t born on Leap Day but still want to join in the festivities with some food deals, look no further. Krispy Kreme is offering a dozen original glazed donuts for $2.29. This way, everybody wins.
Set Some Leap Day Goals
Four years is a long time. So if you have a long-term goal, why not pledge to get it accomplished by the next leap year in 2020? Make a list. Do you want to build a tree house by 2020? Write a novel? Travel a certain number of miles? Save a certain amount of money? Train for a marathon? The possibilities are endless, and the best part is you have four years to accomplish seemingly huge goals.
Not into goals? Write yourself a letter to be opened in four years describing your current life and all the things you see yourself doing, your hopes, your dreams, and other funny things you don’t want to forget. In 2020, what you wrote might surprise you.
Don’t be Afraid to be Cheesy
You get an extra 24 hours this year — don’t be afraid to spend them doing something you wouldn’t do the other 365 days of the year! Go bungee jumping. Skydiving. Cliff jumping. Sing karaoke. Say yes to what you normally would say no to. Take at least one hour to do what YOU want to do. Eat at a new restaurant. Adopt a pet. Learn to make crème brûlée. Ask someone out. You get a whole extra day! You might as well use it wisely.
Watch Leap Day TV-Specials
Want to spend a day to yourself in front of the Tube? There are plenty of leap-day movies and TV episodes to help you celebrate. Watch the movie “Leap Year” or the Modern Family episode “Leap Day.” (Even “30 Rock” has a leap day episode!).
Celebrate by Literally Leaping
Play some leapfrog, jump some rope, skip stones on a body of water and leap into a pile of leaves. Participate in a game of hopscotch, jump on a trampoline and rent a bounce house.
Basically what I’m saying is don’t be afraid to revisit your childhood and be a kid again. Spend these extra 24 hours not worrying about being an adult, but learning to value the time you’ve been given.
How will you spend this extra day? Comment below!
