Hallways

Photo Credit: Ashley Park

For David Foster Wallace, the main point of the average day seemed to be the grocery store. He spent a paragraph and a half just highlighting the misery of that one place. Well, for me the misery of my life is the Troy High School hallways. Those hallways will be the end of me. One of these days I’m just going to have to accept that I will never be able to walk to any class at a leisurely pace. It’s not even just the crowd of people, it’s also the sheer length of those hallways. Just to put into words how difficult those hallways are for me, I have Orchestra 3rd hour and GBBE 4th hour. If you don’t know, that means I have to walk down the ENTIRE Never-Ending Hallway, push through the A-Lunch crowd in front of the library, push through the crowd around the main staircase, and then walk almost to the end of the science hallway to room 315. Not to mention that I’m carrying my absurdly heavy backpack and violin throughout this trek. I’m still waiting for the day I make it to GBBE with enough time to actually get myself settled and relaxed instead of with one minute left to spend trying to get everything ready. The hallway length is definitely one thing that contributes to the torture of this journey, but I would say the bigger thing is the volume of the crowds. Being a short person only adds to this, because it feels like the crowd is around you and above you. Everyone is pushing and trying to be somewhere. Overall, this is definitely one of the worst parts of my day. 

 

But, I will admit, I do look at the hallways through only my view. Everyone else around me is being an inconvenience to me, trying to make me as late as possible to my next hour. But, I guess everyone else is also in the same predicament as me. They’re also trying to get their classes. And who knows, maybe someone has an even more outrageous combination than Orchestra and GBBE. Also, I’m sure I’m part of the problem for other people as well. I try to push through crowds because I have to get through, which I’m sure only causes more of the pushing that I lament. I also tend to use my violin to help me push my way through, forming a solid wall between me and the crowd. I’m sure someone has thought, “Why does that girl need to carry her violin like that? It’s hit my knee 10 times!” So really, we’re all the victims of and the perpetrators behind these horrible hallways. I glad to know that we’re all suffering together. Wait a sec, that came out wrong. I glad to know that we are all sharing this experience together. Ok, that’s better. But, seriously, thinking about this or other similar experiences in this way really does help you let go of some anger. Now, I’m not mad at the hallways. I’ve just accepted them as they are, while implementing my little efforts to improve them (like actually carrying my violin properly). 

 

See, I’m a changed person. Now, how can I apply this to homework, where most of my daily anger lies…