Monday through Friday at 1:58pm, Londonderry High School’s main lot is a hot mess. Students can be seen sprinting from the school’s side doors to their cars with no regard or caution to traffic entering or exiting the parking lot. They don’t care if they get struck by a car (that would just mean a nice settlement offer). All they want is to accomplish one thing: to beat the buses.

Few drivers find themselves lucky enough to avoid the inevitable, but those left behind are forced to pay the ultimate price. When you see Mrs. Fainer in her yellow vest walk out to the middle of the road connecting main lot and Mammoth Road, you know it’s all over. All the hard work you put into sprinting from your H period class, shoving underclassmen out of the way, and neglecting to exchange friendly remarks with your friends or teachers is thrown out the window. You sacrificed so much, but in the end you’re left with nothing.

In reality, it takes approximately ten minutes for the buses to clear out. This time can be used to enjoy some nice car tunes. But in the life of a rushed high schooler, eager to get home and indulge in a sweet after school snack, this time feels like an eternity. The clock seems to have frozen, and you can hear your stomach growling, asking you why you haven’t fed it yet.

Once you’ve lost the race to the buses and you’re sitting in your car, you think about what just happened on your way out of the school. I hope my friend doesn’t think I’m rude for ignoring her, and I hope that sophomore I pushed out of the way is okay. 

If you’ve had a bad day, getting stuck behind the buses is just rubbing salt in the wound.