As a senior here at NPHS, one of the privileges we get to take advantage of is driving ourselves to school.  It’s one of the best things about being a senior because you don’t have to take the bus filled with sophomores and juniors and you can wake up much later. But there is one downside to taking your own transportation to school; the hectic parking lot at the end of the school day.

This week’s Throwback Thursday comes from the year of 1997, which also just happens to be the year many seniors were born. The yearbook article pictured here examines how after going through an exhausting school day, the only thing everyone can think about is how fast they can get home and throw off their heavy back packs. But with this excitement to go home comes carelessness from student drivers. Students speeding out of their parking spots have to quickly hit the brakes because of other students running to their cars who don’t look to make sure there are no vehicles coming their way.

Accolade, 1997

This problem is still of importance to this day. Multiple student drivers still don’t enjoy leaving school right as the bell rings and instead choose to wait to leave school until the parking lot clears out. Senior Hannah Schwartz drives to school every day and she agrees with the feelings about the frantic parking lot. “There’s so many cars and all the buses trying to leave at the same time so almost nobody drives carefully.  It’s scary.”

With hundreds of cars and over 50 buses trying to exit the building, it’s understandable for the parking lot to be a crazy area around 2:15 pm. But it still doesn’t make us drivers feel any better about the constant honking, quick braking, and long wait to hit the road after a long day of school. But it’s interesting to know that even back in the late 90s, students were experiencing the same desire as we are now to make it home as fast as we can, but with the consequence of the parking lot being a hectic scene to leave.