To say activity in the hallways of Powell High School needs improvement would be a gross understatement. It would take months to properly address every little detail, making walking in the hallway a pain.

To keep it simple, I’ll sum up our hallway etiquette problems in the following Top 10 list:

1. People walk way too slow. I have a restrictive brace on one leg and still walk faster than most the people in the hallway. Along with the road rage I have when people in front of me drive too slow, I have hallway rage when people can’t seem to get their legs to work while I’m trying to get to class. If someone drives too slow, they can get a ticket. If someone walks too slow, that should be a liable reason to slap them.
2. People are uneducated. Much to my dismay, I got to overhear a freshman use the word ‘incest’ as a verb. It took all of my willpower not to yell at them and tell them it’s a noun. Aside from that, I was unsure whether anyone else in the hall would understand my outburst. On a positive note, I learned that her hamsters are very happy with their babies after “incesting” with each other.
3. There’s a horrible sound coming from a speaker in someone’s backpack. If you must play music in the halls for everyone to hear, at least make it good music. I don’t like listening to what sounds like a guy getting punched in the stomach repeatedly to a beat. Why do they call that music? Is it Trap music? Is it even music, really?
4. There’s way too much gossip. I have learned so many things about myself from people in the hallway – things I didn’t even know about myself. I did what? With whom? I don’t even know who that is. People like to accuse the media of reporting “fake news.” No honey, what you hear in the hallway is fake news.
5. They’re corrupting my innocent mind. People talk so loud – and not about things that should be overheard. I don’t purposely try to hear side conversations while making my way to class, but people talk loud enough that I am graced with overhearing little tidbits that will inevitably scar me for life.
6. People walk down the wrong side of the hallway. Not only do they walk excruciatingly slow, but people actually have the audacity to walk slow down the wrong side of the hallway and interrupt the flow of hallway-law-abiding students. It’s just like driving on roads. People going in different directions have lanes, and those people should stay in those lanes for safety reasons (this applies to the hallways too because walking down the wrong side of the hallway is bound to tick someone off and ticked-off people aren’t always nice). This is mainly a safety concern but also has a lot of common decency incorporated into it as well.
7. They’re way too loud. I can’t even hear myself think most of the time. Russia might be able to hear what’s going at PHS during the passing periods – now they can be scarred for life too. People are trying to talk over each other and it’s excessive. Not to sound like a senior citizen – but those kids need to keep their racket down.
8. The hallways aren’t always clean. The custodians are not our slaves. If there’s trash in the hallway, students should pick it up. It takes just a few seconds to pick up something and throw it away on your way to class. Aside from the trash, people purposefully scuff up the tile with shoes, leaving black marks everywhere. While it’s fun to leave black marks on the pavement of a drag strip, let’s refrain from making our hallways look like a mini-burnout pad.
9. Horseplay is at the max. People mess around in the hallways all the time – mainly guys. They push each other into walls and sometimes into other people. As much as I’d like to be knocked over by a loud six-foot brick, I’d much rather arrive to my next class unscathed.
10. I keep getting flat tires – and not on my truck. Either people don’t realize how big their feet are, or they have the attention span of a gnat. It is very inconvenient to have to stop and put my shoe back on after someone steps on the back of it. Pay more attention when you’re walking behind someone.