I make an effort to breathe and reconnect with nature after my panic attack the day before over my AP final exams. As the flowers bloom and the sun shines brightly, I take a moment to appreciate the scenery around me. Take a guess: where am I?
Obviously I’m partaking in my daily 8-minute walk from my car at Wakeman Field to school.
It may be an unpopular opinion, and I don’t know how much I would stand by it in the winter months, but my daily walk to school has been one of the most peaceful parts of my horrifically busy junior year.
As I look forward to getting my parking pass for the end of junior year, I want to reminisce on the occasional joys that Wakeman brought me.
First off, I rarely find time to take a minute away from my studies and go for a walk. However, as a result of not being allowed to park on campus this year, I’ve sort of accidentally benefited from the health effects of my daily two-way hot girl walk.
While I can’t say I enjoyed the days that I was either schvitzing in 75 degree heat or couldn’t feel my hands because it was so cold out, the walk to Wakeman during the in between months really isn’t as bad as everyone makes it seem.
— Rachel Olefson '25
One of my favorite sayings is that you have to disconnect, to connect. Each morning on my walk to school I began making a habit of putting my phone on “do not disturb”, and whether or not I had someone to walk with, I would use that time to not look at my phone. With the sheer amount of time I spend staring at either a phone or computer screen all day, mixed with the fact that I don’t like to get hit by Range Rovers, I decided it would be a good idea to make this a screen-free stroll. And I have to say, I loved it.
Socially speaking, I never could have guessed how much I could gain from a distraction-free walk. I reconnected with old friends I hadn’t spoken to simply because we both liked to get up early to park close to the front of the line. When my friends with later birthdays finally got their driver’s licenses, we celebrated together when they started parking alongside the field with me.
As I got closer with the senior class, I would even get the occasional ride to my car from one of my older friends, getting to spill as much as we could about our lives in the 2 minutes it took for them to drive me up through Bedford.
So, rising juniors, I leave you with this: while I can’t say I enjoyed the days that I was either schvitzing in 75 degree heat or couldn’t feel my hands because it was so cold out, the walk to Wakeman during the in between months really isn’t as bad as everyone makes it seem.
