Yesterday was a day off. I don’t mean to state the obvious here, but it was also much more than that. Yes, it was a three day weekend, yes, it was a Monday, and yes, your homework is now due today as due dates are always closer than they appear. So aside from all of the other snarky comments about what yesterday really was, when it comes down to it, North Penn wasn’t really just feeling sympathetic for students’ sleep schedules. Yesterday was MLK Day, and I’m not talking calcium awareness.

Despite popular belief, MLK does not, in fact, stand for milk. And to think this was the one day a year you promised your mother you would drink your milk at dinner. If school granted a day off, surely strong teeth and bones must be important! Well, they are, but the real focus is supposed to be on Martin Luther King Jr, who, coincidentally, is known by calendars everywhere as ‘MLK.’

But fellow milk drinkers do not be dismayed. MLK day is all about unity, and you’re probably not alone. During his life, King aimed to bring people together under their supposedly shared civil liberties. When it quickly became clear that some rights weren’t shared, King gained footing in the civil rights movement by quickly attracting a wide base of people who believed in nonviolent action.

He was an incredibly intelligent man who made strides in civil reform for African Americans, and because of that, his birthday became a holiday for students everywhere. While technically King was born on January 15, the third Monday is January is close enough and will never move unless you happen to sleep through it. But I strongly advise all of you to be present during MLK day because as I said before, it’s a day to commemorate unity and action. I don’t mean taking a poll of the massive numbers who stayed in bed and the only action being a shuffle towards the refrigerator. I mean coming together as a community, whether that is the school community or local community, and really putting time and effort into something worthwhile. I know beating the millionth level in the fourth version of Call of Duty seemed really important yesterday, but I guarantee you no one will be gathering fifty years from now to remember that, despite how excited your mother appeared. There is more to this world than virtual victory, little Jimmy! Now please, go plant a tree…

But all joking aside, yesterday would’ve been the ideal day to really take advantage of all the opportunities your communities offer. Shelters and places that run food drives are always in need of volunteers. Some of the elementary schools in the district even got to “stuff the bus,” which involved students bringing in enough breakfast foods to fill a bus that would be sent to two different drop-off locations to be given out that same day.

Nobody is asking you to change the world, but just because you may not see your name in a history book decades from now doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference. On a daily basis, our world is filled with an unfortunate amount of hate and distress. Yesterday was a day to transcend all that Martin Luther King fought against, a day to pick up the stones people cast against race, class, and ability to truly build something great with our friends and families. King had a dream that one day he would see a more tolerant world. I have a dream too, and though it may not inspire a movement, I still hope you’ll see what the Korner brings next week, North Penn.