At 7:30 AM, hundreds of students try to cram their cars into the parking lots of the North and South ends of the school in a hurry to get to class on time. As if we all weren’t late enough, some people feel the need to drive an extra few minutes all the way around the school, just to park in a specific parking lot. Why do students have to do this? Are they afraid their social status might be damaged? Why risk having so many U’s from being tardy just to fit in or be with your “kind of people”?

Students often stereotype and make assumptions about the people who park in each end. If you play sports, you’re a “South Ender”. If you are in band, you obviously park in North End. Yes, I understand that the gym is located on the south side and the band room is on the north side but it still doesn’t make sense to me that people can automatically make assumptions about a person’s personality or interests based on the location of their vehicle.  If someone parks in the north end, does that automatically make them an actor in musical theatre? Or if they park in the south end, are they immediately considered a “jock”? What if they are in theatre AND play a sport- then what?

I park in the North End not because I’m in band or theatre but because that’s the closest parking lot to where I’m coming from in the mornings. It’s just sensible to me that when I’m in a hurry, I get to school as fast as I can, parking as close as I can in the amount of time I have. It just makes sense.

It also bothers me when people claim that if you’re smart or serious about grades, you’re a north ender and if you’re cool and people really like you, then you must be a south ender.  These stereotypes have been made for years and will only continue until someone can convince a student body of 2400 to make sense of themselves and parking lots. With 100 years of defending tradition behind us, is this a tradition worth defending for the rest of the history of Davis?