The bell rings, and it is survival mode. There are five minutes for students to cross what feels like miles of the Edmond Memorial High School hallways while knowing they could trip, make eye contact with someone they are avoiding or be trapped behind a group moving in slow-motion. Students can encounter multiple situations in the hallway, each with different strategies to overcome them.
Hallways becoming meetups:
At some point in the day, every student finds themselves trapped behind the legendary group of slow walkers. A mound of friends will manage to take up the whole hallway while dragging their feet like snails and gossiping about their drama. Meanwhile, 50 people behind them are silently questioning their life choices. The best way to maneuver around them is to say “Excuse me” and continue speed-walking right past them.
“I have to run around them like a soccer mom walking to my kid’s practice,” sophomore Addy Dodd said. “It is pretty obvious to not walk in a line slowly when there is a crowd behind you.”
Eye contact crisis:
Nothing tests emotional strength more than making accidental eye contact in drama or arguments, and one glance at them feels like the longest second ever. Many students deal with this issue by immediately looking away and continuing toward class as if nothing ever happened. Whatever happens, do not react dramatically because that will just make the situation a hundred times worse.
“I just smirk, not at them, but to myself,” senior Jack Hibbs said. “For both the sort of comical situations I might’ve gotten into be in that situation, or to cope with how awkward the thing that just happened was.”
Cuddle congestion:
Another obstacle that can appear during passing period is couples. Usually, this couple fell in love within a week and decided to make it everyone else’s problem by saying goodbye like they were going off to war. The easiest way around is just to keep walking. The only mission is to be to class on time, not accidentally become a background character in someone else’s love story.
“I have to dodge the couples left and right when I try to make it to my next class,” senior Gabriella Smith said. “Then I find out that there is one right in the classroom door, so I gear up and just walk right through them.”
Public humiliation 101:
With hundreds of students moving through the hallway at the same time, embarrassing moments are basically guaranteed. Someone could have their clothing tied to a door handle, drop their papers or fall in front of half of the school. These moments may feel like the end of the world at the time, but just laugh it off and keep walking. Confidence is usually the fastest way to recover, especially because most people forget within minutes.
“I just remember that everybody whose backpacks are paper thin do not have the papers for their next class,” freshman Daisy Renwick said. “So I pick up my own dropped papers and walk away, remembering no one has that kind of attention span anyway.”
Minute bell rush:
No one has experienced true chaos until they walk through the hallways during the minute before the final bell rings. It is like a stampede of people at an airport during the holidays. Try to arrive at class earlier so that this situation can be avoided entirely because this really does make the hallways feel like an Olympic track sprinting event.
“When the one-minute bell rings, people definitely pick up the pace and get a move on,” Smith said. “It is like they think if they’re late, the world is going to end.”
Passing periods may only last five minutes, but they can feel like complete chaos. Keeping conversations moving and just walking to class right away can easily make those five minutes feel less like an obstacle and more like a break between classes. Until then, the hallways will likely remain one of the most entertaining parts of the school day, with it feeling like running a marathon from class to class.
Contact Anna Vitiello at [email protected]
