Nobody likes high school. And if students do, they’re the ones who have friends to walk with to and from classes. Those who walk alone, listen to music and just try to get to class on time have to deal with some of the ‘rowdy’ teens.
The majority of friend groups who walk through classes are about four to five people per group and all you can hear while walking in the same hallway is their voices or their laughter. You try to walk past them as you know your next class is across the school and on a different floor but your ducking and dodging skills are no match to the group of friends who are twice your height and standing in a line across the hallway, walking slower than you. So, you’re stuck.
You arrive late to class and get reprimanded because other students are too busy worrying about themselves. They don’t mind if they’re late, as long as they’re having fun and enjoying time with their friends, as if they won’t see them during lunch, before and after school or talk to them over text during class. Everyday, students get stuck behind those people. All that goes through our minds during those six minutes in between class is: please don’t let the bell ring or please take the next left, as we mentally beg those groups to get out of the way.
It’s understandable that one would want to walk to class with their friends—we all need someone to lighten up the day. From personal experience, these moments make school a little bit easier. But, hallway convos shouldn’t reach the point where students are fighting their way through crowds to get to class.
There hasn’t gone a day where a kid hasn’t stopped in the middle of the hallway to talk to someone else. There hasn’t gone a day where a kid doesn’t climb the stairs in the wrong direction, forcing themselves against traffic. The hallways are always going to be annoying, crowded and tight but there should be common courtesy because some students don’t have the energy or the time to put up with the weird things going on around them.
Pull up masks; nobody cares that you got a nose ring. Lower your volume when talking to friends; nobody who doesn’t know you wants to hear you complain everyday. Stop walking in the wrong direction, stay on the right. This school is overcrowded, at least make it easier for others to get to classes. At the end of the day, it all boils down to common courtesy and how you show it.
To everyone who messes around in the hallways: it isn’t all about you or your friends. There are people behind you when you step back, there are feet you step on and other students or staff you accidentally elbow in the gut. If you decide to continue causing a ruckus, at least apologize.
