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      Slider

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      Op/ed.

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SliderViewpoints

Bumper-to-bumper

March 22, 2025
Bumper-to-bumper
An illustration shows the Clarke Central High School student parking lot after dismissal. Business Manager Merren Hines has struggled to get out of the CCHS student parking lot every day during the 2024-25 school year. “After a long day at school, we all get excited to leave and rush to our cars, but in reality, we won’t be leaving for another 30 minutes,” Hines wrote. Illustration by Kimberly Sanabria-Amaya

After a long and stressful day, all new drivers want to experience the frenzy of the CCHS student parking lot full of cars waiting to get out.

When the bell rings at 3:35 p.m., it’s music to every Clarke Central High School student’s ears. After a long day at school, you get excited to leave and rush to your cars, but in reality, you won’t be leaving for another 30 minutes.

When you finally turn 16, all you want is to get your driver’s license and to be able to go wherever you want, whenever you want.

On your first day of having your license during the school year, you’ll get to take on the Clarke Central High School student parking lot – every CCHS students’ favorite place on Earth.

It may seem agonizing, but sitting in the same spot in the parking lot for 20 minutes in your car before moving an inch is a great way to test your patience every day.

When you pull into the parking lot in the morning, it may seem like a complete drag – easy parking in less than a minute. It’s after the end-of-school bell rings when the fun begins.

After a dreadful seven-hour school day, who wouldn’t want to walk into the parking lot and be greeted with a long line of cars waiting to get out? I mean, it’s just so exciting knowing you are about to join that 30-minute-long line full of impatient students.

It may seem agonizing, but sitting in the same spot in the parking lot for 20 minutes in your car before moving an inch is a great way to test your patience every day.

Once you start moving, while trying not to get hit in the process, all of the other nice, tired students in their cars will certainly let you out and totally won’t almost crash into you 10 times. Even better, the parking lot is set up perfectly to satisfy your needs. There is one exit (for simplicity, I’m sure), and all teachers, car riders and students use it at the same time.

After finally getting to the exit, you think the fun is over,, but it doesn’t end there. Realizing the person in front of you is incapable of turning left, you know you’re going to be waiting forever.
After all of that, who wouldn’t want to sit through even more traffic while trying to make it home?

At last, when you get home after that just amazing experience, you get to wake up and do it again for the rest of the school year.

More from Merren Hines

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Merren Hines

Merren Hines is a junior at Clarke Central High School in Athens, Georgia, and the Business Manager for the ODYSSEY Media Group. Hines is hopeful of connecting with her team members and the environment around her. She is excited about meeting new people and leaders to gain skills, socially and academically. Hines’ hobbies are dancing and being with friends.

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