Imagine you’re floating down the third floor hallway, blissfully sipping an iced coffee (or a chocolate milk if you’re a sophomore). You have a few minutes before your next class starts, and you’re feeling good. Confident. On top of the world. You round a corner and slam to a halt. Iced coffee coats the floor and every bone in your body urges you to run the other way. A herd of freshmen whose laughter is as piercing as their braces are shiny, stands between you and your destination. You mull over your options and find you have three choices: one, you turn and run all the way around the floor to avoid the throng; two, you passive-aggressively ask them to move, eliciting a wave of rolling eyes and muttered insults; three, you duck your head and bulldoze through the axe-body-spray-scented mass, sustaining emotional trauma that will last you a lifetime (and possibly brain damage from inhaling the chemicals they douse themselves in).
The freshmen’s inability to stand on the side of the hallway isn’t the only thing irking older students, however. “One thing that bothers me is their lack of efficiency,” sophomore Zoe Larsen said. “They move super slowly in the halls.”
She noted, going along with the clumping theme, “They also walk in a line and take up the entire width of the hallway so you can’t get around them.”
As you can imagine, these two factors leave those unfortunate enough to be behind them with the degrading experience of nipping at their heels like a spoiled pomeranian.
Junior Jadyn Aling also shared her grievances. “They just seem clueless, and they won’t ask for help.” When pressed further as to what exactly this meant, she clarified, “They just act like they’ve never set foot in the school before.” I mean, it’s not like it’s their first year in the building, right?
“It’s not a specific thing,” added junior Preyan Mehta. “It’s just an inherent feeling that they are annoying because they are freshmen.” (Freshmen, a word of advice: If you see Preyan in the halls, run.)
Sophomore Nathan Koo explained, “I don’t know, I mean, I guess they’re just loud in areas where I’m just trying to chill.”
While everyone was a freshman at one point, some only a few months ago, older students love to diss the youngest grade. So, to the freshmen, when you walk the halls of Latin from now on, think of this saying: “Children should be seen, not heard.” For extra safety, though, don’t be seen either. Good luck!