Smothering

Someone steps on my foot, and then I step on the back of someone else's foot. People have to hobble side-by-side like penguins migrating as they try to make it to class in the meager five minutes provided. The ones on the edges get crushed as they walk by the wall. It was the first thing that I discovered is going to be a problem in school this year--crowded hallways. It is the nightmare of a claustrophobic student.

I have been in the same school since 9th grade and I was in the junior high for two years, and it has never been this packed. I wish I could blame it on the freshmen, but they do not make up the whole student body. They did highly increase the number of people, though.

Apparently it is too easy for new people to get into the school nowadays. When I enrolled way back when, it was actually a process and I had to write an essay about why I wanted to go there (or why I deserved to get in); now it seems like grandma is standing at the door ushering kids in and offering them cookies! She welcomes them and hopes they do not leave because then the farm, I mean school, will get less government funding.

What happened to the bubble of space that each person is supposed to have? The cafeteria in the morning, the halls in between classes, and even the classrooms have gotten congested. Who can be comfortable with an area of two feet to breathe? It is a hindrance to my education if I do not have my personal space.

I do not think anything will be done any time soon, but the simple solution for the future is to not enroll more students than can fit comfortably in the school; students would then be able to walk through the halls like humans instead of herds of cattle.