My name is Rylan Lorance and I am the new writer for the @school column. I would like to thank my predecessor, Mathew Austin, for starting this column. I would also like to commend him on his new book, for all who have not read it, it’s an excellent read.  I hope to continue sharing the voice of the students of Warren County High School, all the while sharing my own story of what it’s like as a teenager in McMinnville.
It is the first day of school and I am sitting underneath the underpass near the high school. I am watching the clock tick forward into my impending tardiness. My car is running, but I haven’t moved anywhere in the past five minutes. There is a procession of cars, both in front and behind me. Everyone is here to get to school. People are grumpy, irritable, and stuck in traffic. It is now 7:45 a.m., and I have accepted being late.
Earlier this summer, Warren County High School began construction of a new indoor sporting complex, and every athlete was ecstatic. Sports teams will finally have somewhere to practice, someplace to protect them from the cold. When we realized the placement of the complex, and how it will affect student parking, many students were concerned. Students, especially the sophomore class, asked “Will I get a parking spot?” In return for our new sporting complex, many parking spaces will be eliminated, making the hectic pandemonium that is WCHS parking lot even more severe.
The day was Aug. 5. The weather was brisk, or maybe it just seemed that way. This was the earliest we had been up since May. There is a large line. Some people brought lawn chairs or blankets.
One would guess we were out here for concert tickets or perhaps a football game, but the upcoming junior class was desperately waiting for a 10x20 plot of pavement. The building didn’t open until 8, but many of us were here at 6, the strongest arriving in darkness at 4 a.m. Eventually, the line began to move, and I couldn’t help but draw similarities between our situation and “The Hunger Games.” A group of bushwhacked teens, all driven by chaotic mob-mentality, all fighting for our right to drive; I feared for my life.
Traffic is horrible, and I don’t mean to complain, but I sincerely hope the morning parking situation clears up soon, because tardiness will become an increasing problem. I speak for most of the students when I say my morning commute has been tripled with the subtraction of many parking spots.
The primary problem is a majority of students and all parents are forced into one lane, instead of two like the previous years. I know many students are upset, but I would like to commend the faculty in their handling of this situation, especially our valiant SROs who make a living dodging teenage drivers. I am certain we will get used to the new traffic, and will enjoy our new sporting complex. In time, I know this situation will solve itself and we students will get back to being late for fixing hair and buying donuts.
Rylan Lorance is a student at Warren County High School.