Senior activities are something every student anticipates doing in their last year at Central Hardin. Seeing all of the pictures on social media from senior movie night, senior night, prom, and even the senior trip is inspiring, but one activity that has yet to be seen is painting parking spots. 

Painting parking spots is an opportunity offered at high schools across the country and I’d love to see it here. Decorating parking spots can bring out the creativity of students and offer a close sense of community to bring seniors together! 

Bright colors, funny statements, and personalities can be highlighted by simply painting the asphalt. The colors on the parking lot can also fuel the imagination of underclassmen who look forward to their senior year.

Not only would painting a parking spot be fun, but it would also be helpful. 

Students would have a much easier time parking in the morning and this will increase their chances of efficiently being at school on time. The hassle every morning of trying to find a parking spot at school is overwhelming enough, let alone having to drive aimlessly down the aisles searching for an empty slot. With the idea of painting spaces, spots would already be assigned to a student. This would benefit the traffic in the morning since everyone would have an exact place to park in.

Other schools that allow their students to paint parking spaces see it as a way to excite their students to come to school. Hence, painting parking spaces will even promote our school spirit! 

This may be hard for our school to do, due to the ongoing construction around the school, however, a student only gets one senior year. The extra effort to make this tradition happen is so worth the memories,  as are all the activities unique to upperclassmen! 

The kind of paint to be used would have to be a water-based exterior all-weather substance. Of course, they would be painted over at the end of the year so the next class can paint their own. If this was too much of a hassle, a less permanent and inexpensive alternative to painting spots could be using chalk. 

A day for painting the spots could be arranged like any other senior activity and be done within one setting after school. This activity could even be led by senior students, similar to the way past seniors have set up another senior activity, senior sunrise.

At the end of the year, seniors who participated in decorating a parking space can say farewell to high school and paint over it for the incoming class.

Painting parking spaces is like painting a picture of what we want our senior year to be. The colors, creativity, and consideration that go into these murals on the pavement would be an inspiration to all students. 

Students who support this idea should write The Central Times at [email protected] or leave a comment below!