by Torie Richardson

“Sometimes I hate your school,” my dad shakes his head, dropping me off at 7:39 am. I laugh.

“The girls are actual really nice,” I reassure him. But he already has a bad impression. He’s experienced the habitual impoliteness of students in the St. Teresa’s Academy parking lot.

Here, we’re all about kindness and the sisterhood, but when it comes to letting someone go before you in the parking lot after school, we seem to think our behavior doesn’t reflect our character. It does. It brings out the worse in us.

Yes, I’m only a sophomore, but I think that makes my point even more valid. I can see the behavior that many students seem to be immune to since beginning to drive their own cars to school. I love this school and I think STA girls are the best, but when we’re just plain rude, even when it’s not intentional, it’s a bad reflection of our school as a whole.

We laugh when we hear complaints from neighbors over the announcements, but imagine how it would feel if you lived close to St. Teresa’s. Teenage girls speed down your street where your kids play, and don’t even care that it bothers you. Imagine what a neighbor would think if they attended advisory and saw eyes role and heard students laugh their concern off. Every single thing we do is a reflection of the kind of person we are.

Next time you’re in the parking lot, I hope you’ll take a couple of seconds to look out for a car to let in front of you. If each car would let two cars in front of them before leaving the parking lot, the traffic flow would be so much smoother.

I hope that if you walk across the lot in front of a car, you’ll throw a hand up in gratitude instead of lazily strolling while someone patiently waits for you to take your sweet time. It should not take 30 seconds for you and your best friend to cross from one side of the street to the other.

As a very soon-to-be driver, I’ve made a commitment to myself to be kind. Not only to avoid road rage, but to actually strive to see people as people, instead of as cars.