The senior lot has always been a defining characteristic of the senior experience. Students who have dedicated years of their life to MSD are finally rewarded in their last year by being able to customize a personal parking spot and making it their own. It is thought of by many as a right of passage, and is highly anticipated by seniors. So, why are juniors taking up spots in the senior lot?

For a variety of reasons, this year has proven to be different than any other. There is an unprecedented rate of juniors using senior parking spots for a variety of reasons, one of which includes dual enrollment.

The journey to the junior lot is hot, loud and obnoxious. The senior lot is called the senior lot for a reason: it is where seniors park. Notice how there are no juniors in that equation.

But that is only one part of it. Students are using dual enrollment classes to get in and out of school when they please. In turn, students who have been waiting for a senior parking spot have been deprived and deferred to the junior lot.

Seniors are being forced to park in the junior lot because juniors are taking up the senior lot. How delightfully paradoxical — not. It seems as though there is no use to even name the lots “junior” and “senior,” for their users do not even need to be in the assigned class anymore.

The struggles some juniors face is understandable. Regardless of why juniors are taking dual enrollment classes, they are. They do not want to walk all the way to the junior lot daily, heaving books back and forth. It is annoying, irritating and can be physically challenging for many. But they are juniors — not seniors.

The senior class has gone through everything high school has to offer over three years of hard work and are now tirelessly completing their fourth. If the junior presence continues to grow in the senior lot, it could crumble the fine-tuned hierarchy seniors have worked so hard to build over the years. 

Regardless of the classes a student takes or if they drive to school, they should park in their assigned class parking lot. Assigned parking simply reduces the complexity of the situation and allows the parking predicament to fade off.

The convenience of the senior lot is definitely noticeable, but the fact of the matter is that the seniors who want to use their lot this year have waited patiently throughout their high school career. Juniors can do the same.

This story was originally published in the October 2018 Eagle Eye print edition.