A guide to how to walk in the hallway
Spenser Johns
Staff Writer
December 13, 2022
Walker be wary - The hallways of WHS can be treacherous for those who are ill-prepared.
There are few times in my daily life when I truly get angry. I am usually pretty good at understanding other people’s perspectives and I’m able to brush off a lot. One thing that I will never understand, however, is the way that some people walk in the hallway.
It’s like driving: there are people who understand the rules of the road and others who should probably have their licenses revoked. There are so many things that people do in the hallway that irk me, and I am here to teach you how to walk correctly in the hallway.
1. Don’t just stop in the middle of the hallway.
I feel like it is every day that I see people bundled up in a big group in the middle of the hallway during passing periods. Sure, I understand wanting to catch up with friends—maybe telling them what happened this morning before school or what happened during your previous class— but please, for the sake of everyone else, move to the side. You don’t need to use the entire length of the hallway. It is also irritating when a single person, maybe two, will just… stop walking in the hallway. I’ll be behind a person and all of a sudden I’m ramming into their backpack, earning a judgemental glare, but I don’t have a super-enhanced reaction time! So please be courteous and get out of the way if you need to stop in the hallway.
2. Walk at a reasonable pace.
I know that slow walkers are usually pinned as the underclassmen, but the number of upperclassmen I get stuck behind in the hallway that walk so…incredibly…slow…is ridiculous. I see a lot of groups that walk in a horizontal line—which takes up the whole hallway and others can’t get around them—and decide to walk at a speed so incomprehensibly slow that I didn't know it was humanly possible. I don’t mind if you want to walk slowly, but please make it so other people can get around you. Do you enjoy meandering through the halls? Good for you. On the other hand, I have two tests, a quiz, and places to be, so I suggest you scoot to the side.
3. Don’t “fight” your friend in the hallway.
This idea feels very middle school, but I’ve still dealt with it the entire four years I’ve been in high school. I will be walking in the hallway and a group in front of me will start pushing each other, disturbing everyone else in the hall. Even earlier this week, a person was pushed directly at me which almost caused a domino effect of people falling or tripping behind me. Please realize that you and your friends are not the only people in the hallway, so with peace and love, stop using the hallway as a boxing ring.
4. Let others in the flow of people walking.
THIS! This is something I don’t see people talking about enough. I know we all hate getting into the flow of traffic in the upper and lower gold wings. It is a bloodbath trying to enter or even cross the hallway because no one will let you through. More times than not I see this issue creating even more issues and backups in the halls. If you see people trying to get across the hallway, don’t be like everyone else and speed up so that they’re stuck having to risk life and limb to just push their way through. Be kind and courteous and get out of the way so that the hallway will run more smoothly.
5. Go through one side of the door.
I always experience this after my first period when trying to go through the doors of the lower gold wing. Everyone is trying to file out as fast as they can from their class and they push through both sides of the door. This makes it so that gold wing on comers have to awkwardly push their way through the opposing traffic to go through the doors, and then the people blocking the door will either not move out of the way or will judgmentally glare at them. It’s like traffic laws: always drive on the right side of the road.
6. Use the stairs as stairs.
This one feels obvious, but this trimester I encountered a group of students who met in a group on the stairs and had a full-on conversation while standing in the middle of the staircase. I cannot comprehend what went through their mind to be like “Yes! This is a good idea,” but then again I cannot comprehend what goes through a teenager’s mind most of the time. If you’re going to be on the stairs, please use them for their intended purpose. They aren’t a convenient meeting spot, they’re meant to lead you upstairs or downstairs.
I’m sure that there are many more issues and problems that cause disruptions in the hallway that I have missed, but I hope that my highly intellectual insight will help resolve some of the major issues that I see. The big thing is to be courteous to everyone else around you. Most of us are trying to get to class on time, and these halls are crowded! It’s like our beloved Mr. Bruns always exactly said: “be kind, work hard and make the hallway a better place.”