The parking lot––full of weird stares, indecisiveness, and anger. What’s all the chaos about? We all have had our fair share of embarrassing driving moments, as we sometimes don’t think about what we are doing. With distractions in our way, it can almost be impossible to have a relaxing parking experience especially in a school lot.

Most students are in the same boat: we’ve hit snooze five too many times, finished up homework we didn’t do the night before, and gotten stuck behind some grandpa who goes extremely slow. As the week goes on, some people seem to leave their homes later and later each morning. The drag of lack of sleep and increased stress really catches up with us. When will this vicious cycle end? Let’s just say we are all getting pretty sick of it, especially when the consequences of bad drivers come into play.

Senior Lucy Hanson has experienced frustration with other drivers. “The one time last year I actually drove Sarah [McGurl] to school, I was parked in the [synagogue] lot after school. Then, all of a sudden somebody rear ends me as I’m parked. They checked to see if their car was okay, then they drove away. That was the last time I drove to school,” Hanson said.

Hanson was new to BSM her junior year, and from what she has experienced since, no one’s driving skills have improved. “Not to call anybody out, but I ride to school with [senior] Sarah McGurl every day, and you could call her a below-average driver. I swear, every day she has a new story to share––whether it’s her door handle coming off or hitting her own mailbox, both of which actually happened,” Hanson said.

On the other hand, freshman Blake Steensland doesn’t quite get the concept of people taking forever to get out of their cars when being dropped off. It’s clear that many students don’t take Steensland’s morning drop-off process seriously because they create a huge inconvenience that makes him late to class. “It gets all jammed up… they need to move because I have to get out of the car, and now there are like eighty cars behind me… or the parent just sits there on their phone in like the middle of the drop-off area, like, ‘Keep it moving!’” Steensland said.

Parents dropping their kids off at school can get just as fed up as their children, mainly because they are rushing to get to work as well. Many parents bring out their crazy driver road rage right in the parking lot. Steensland, however, appreciates his parents’ master driving skills. “Yeah, they’re aggressive which I like…they have a purpose,” Steensland said.

Many students develop strong feelings about their fellow classmates; I mean, the way someone drives can really tell you a lot about who they are on a soul level. This judgment that we all have can build when dealing with the indecisiveness of others, particularly underclassmen who seem to show the most confusion and poor decision-making when driving. “Yeah, I think [new sophomore drivers] get really distracted; they make very quick decisions that aren’t very smart; they just pull out without looking basically,” junior Maggie Amaris said.

Cell phones also seem to be a big factor in terms of where our attention is at. Our phones can cause us to be busy when trying to run out the door, get out of bed, or actually drive. “Yes, sometimes I do get distracted by my phone, always like changing the music, or sometimes if I’m running late… But I also am very skilled at driving, and I do think I have quick reflexes,” Amaris said.

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In the parking lot, however, nothing is worse than doing a terrible parking job with a group of people staring at you. In our minds, we think the onlookers are judging us, which is probably true, and I think we probably deserve it because we can do much better than this. But instead, the stress and anger gets the best of us.

Particularly, those of us girls, who get our Venti Chai Tea Latte before school, can cause some tension. This list of people definitely rotates; it just depends on the day. Holding Starbucks along with our key chain on the other hand is definitely our statement move for the morning. Over time, this could lead to even more parking lot drama because whoever has the Starbucks drink at 8 am automatically gains productivity points in terms of morning priorities.

Students need to pick a choice: either go on their morning coffee run or sleep in. It is pretty clear that many students will choose Starbucks over anything else. If we make the wrong decision, it could be detrimental to our morning attitudes because we do not receive our Starbucks hierarchy privileges. “I think they are just jealous that they didn’t get their Starbucks for the morning,” sophomore Carter Strom said.

Because of our poor decision-making, we get flustered before the school bell rings. It’s true that how you start your morning is how your day will go because it automatically affects your mindset. Over time, we may overcome our fears and judgment in the parking lot, but for now, this issue will never go away, staying with us during our high school life because that’s just the way these things go.