By Danielle Childress
Most mornings it takes me longer to navigate from my car in the driver’s ed parking lot to room K-5 than it takes to drive the four miles between my house and Varina High School. I’m not a slow walker, by any means, but man do those fences around campus throw me for a loop. Round the corner of G, now known as Building 7, and bam! There’s another fence – that one gets me every time.
I’m not saying the renovation is a bad thing. This school will look gorgeous soon enough, but all of the changes certainly spice up campus life. Not only do the fences force students to find new paths around school, but they also make the campus on rainy days look more like a mud bog arena than an academic institution. It’s always a battle to see who will make it in the arena. And who doesn’t like an exciting sporting event between trigonometry and English?
The effects of construction can be seen, or rather heard, inside the classroom, as well. During Mr. So-and-So’s rant about how many papers he graded last weekend or Ms. What’s-Her-Name’s lecture on why there are no more tissues in her room, students normally would kill for an interruption; however, lately we’ve been getting a few too many. Between the constant announcements, bell tests and jackhammering, it’s a miracle students can hear anything.
My personal favorite change on campus, thanks to renovations, has got to be the afternoon announcements. The actual announcements haven’t changed, but a new game has presented itself. This game is called “count the confused.” Here are the rules. Look around the room during announcements. After we get through the bus changes, the fun begins. The announcer reads meeting locations and students visibly try to make a mental map of campus.
We all do it. With all of the building name and number changes, the upperclassmen are just as lost as the freshmen. Watching my fellow seniors struggle to remember where a building is in a school they’ve attended for over three years is hilarious, and when it’s me trying to remember where things are on campus, slightly embarrassing. The game is fantastic, but unfortunately only applicable to the rooms with fully functioning PA systems.
But really, in the end, what can be done? Construction is something we all have to deal with, and something we can complain about or accept. The new spiced up campus life may be irritating for some, but it’s all fun and games for this girl – literally. I go about my day, walk out to my car and drive those four miles back to my house where the sound of jackhammers and class bells can’t be heard until morning.
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