The Not Quite But Almost Weekend Day:

A Definition of Wednesday

Rhetorical Question Intro:

            Wednesday: It is the classic example of whether the glass is half-full or half-empty. Is the working/business/school week almost done because we have now completed two of the five days, or do we still have half of a week to go because Thursday and Friday are yet to come?

            Wednesday by definition is the middle of the week. It is the day after Tuesday and the day before Thursday. We are no longer at the beginning of the week, but we aren’t quite ready to think about the weekend. Wednesday is the day “South Park” airs on Comedy Central and the day I plan to tone my body at the gym. Wednesday is the day after Election Day and the day before Thanksgiving. It is the first day back to school following Monday and Tuesday off for Labor Day. Wednesday holds no value of its own, almost forgotten in the perennial holiday schedule.

            Wednesday is a 5 year old boy, crying because he realizes that the horrors of Kindergarten that he has newly been introduced to will continue for the rest of his life. He is trapped in the endless cycle of five days of work followed by only two of rest. From this point until retirement, Wednesday will symbolize the status quo, the week without vacation or sick days, the week of work and/or learning.

            The word Wednesday is derived from the naming of days using Roman Gods. Dies Jovis, or “Jupiter's Day”, was the ancient name for what we now know as Wednesday. When translated into the Middle English calendar, Jupiter’s name was changed to its Germanic counterpart, Wdnesdaeg. This would later come to be known as Woden’s Day and finally Wednesday. Ironically, the god, Woden, was known to be quick and eloquent. Many would argue that Wednesday feels like the longest days of the week because we are tired from the previous days’ labor, but not yet relieved by the cheerfulness that is associated with the weekend.

            But the answer to the question of whether the glass is half-full or half-empty does not depend on who is being asked, but instead when they are being asked. Should the question be asked on a Sunday night when a secretary dreads her week long servitude to her employer that awaits her, Wednesday is a bright spot; a checkpoint on the way to another weekend. The Monday morning commuter, tired and hung-over from his late night football watching party looks to Wednesday as a day when he will have readjusted to waking early. On a Saturday night however, when a teenager is out partying with friends, Wednesday is the last thing on his mind. Wednesday means he will be worn of two more days of 6:45 alarm clocks and hourly bells signifying the end of each dreary class. Wednesday cannot be defined with words like freedom or relaxation, words that describe Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Nor can it be portrayed by exhaustion and anxiety, words that detail the emotions of average Americans on a Monday morning.

            Wednesday is the sum of emotions that make up a standard week. It is stress, anxiety, pressure, and tension. It is hope, optimism, and anticipation. Wednesday is a lawyer’s nine to five job in an office building in Manhattan. Wednesday is a teacher’s long day of dealing with menacing students and a student’s long day of listening to teachers. But Wednesday is a father’s early departure from the office to watch his daughter’s ballet recital and a mother’s stop on the way home from the grocery store to sign her son up for karate. Wednesday is all of these things.