Students discuss unfortunate experiences with their cars

ella lim |staff writer

Much like the famed movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” students at Blue Valley have also faced some adversaries in regard to their vehicles. Whether that’s concerning unfortunate crashes or unanticipated thefts, the movie most certainly relates to the high school experience — especially for juniors Alex Diaz and Mae Briggs and senior Kaylee Stephens

Though Homecoming weekend is already eventful enough, Diaz and Briggs went through another big ordeal as well on the day before the dance.

“I was driving Alex’s car because he got sick of driving,”

Briggs said. “I was the only legal person to drive in the car because we were driving around a bunch of freshmen.”

Distracted by the talking in the backseat and pulling out of the parking lot they went into to switch drivers, Briggs accelerated into the car in front of her in the middle of an intersection.

“I rolled into the car in front of us, which just happened to be a Ranger Rover — which is great,” Briggs said.

Although everyone was unharmed from the accident, the vehicle sustained some impairment.

“Since the cars were so close, I didn’t think she did too much damage,” Diaz said. “ I was surprised when the lady ended up calling the cops [and] we found out it was a lot of damage [on the back bumper].”

Already owing the lady $2,000 due to the accident, Briggs felt that the situation was even worse than just a car crash.

“I literally knew the lady whose car it was because she has two kids that go to our school,” Briggs said. “I’ve known her [for a long time] because I used to be friends with them, and they were my friend’s neighbors. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I used to jump on your trampoline!’”

Fortunately, the crash ended without any other complications.

“[The lady] was nice about it, Alex was nice about it — I just felt really bad,” Briggs said. “Now I just owe her money.”

Diaz was sympathetic to the situation.

“She was really apologetic and she felt bad — it was nothing on her part, [but] she was really sweet about it,” Diaz said. “It’s kind of funny, actually. I’m really happy that she’s dealing with the lady and not making me deal with it.”

Similarly, Stephens also went through another eventful day when she woke up one morning to her car missing from her garage.

“My mom left the garage door open, and I left my keys and my wallet in the car,” she said. “My dad ran upstairs [in the morning] and he said, ‘Your car’s stolen.’”

Though Stephens didn’t believe her father at first, she soon realized it was stolen overnight.

“I was shocked, freaking out and really mad,” Stephens said. “My mom felt really bad, and my dad was pissed.”

Fortunately, Stephens had a solution that helped her locate her car.

“I have a tracker on my phone that actually tracks my car,” she said.

However, occurring during a big snowstorm in February, the cops weren’t able to go to where the car was located.

“My dad actually went and found my car and then called the police to come meet him,” she said.

Able to get her car back, Stephens strongly recommends being careful with your belongings, especially in regards to your vehicle.

“Definitely don’t leave your garage door open, and put your wallet and keys inside your house,” Stephens said.

regan byrnes|web editor

The painful silence within a classroom after a teacher proposes a question, trying to engage in an academic conversation is a classic and unique rite of passage every high school student must experience.

Though it seems these long, drawn out silences are becoming more common due to various reasons, junior Molly James believes it could be how younger classes were affected by the Covid-19 lockdown.

“Coming back from online learning was different [because] you didn’t have to participate when you were on Zoom,” James said. “Especially my class, we didn’t start off high school knowing how to participate normally in class.”

James tries her best to stay present in class but admits it can be extremely difficult when her classmates refuse to engage in activities.

“There’s some classes that I’m like, ‘Man, it’d be nice if more people would talk. [It] would make this a lot less painful,’” James said. “A way we could encourage other people is having more collective and collaborative learning. I feel like sometimes everyone feels like they’re on their own to learn, but working together and talking stuff out more would definitely be helpful.”

Though James is continuously annoyed by the lack of class involvement from her peers, she feels disappointed for the teachers who have taken the time to create exciting lesson plans, only for nobody wanting to partake in the activity.

“A teacher is up there [and] they want somebody to talk to — they want someone to answer their questions. I definitely feel bad if you just sit there and don’t do anything,” James said. “They obviously want you to interact with them because that’s kind of how learning works.”

Furthermore, speech and debate teacher Chris Riffer admits it’s more difficult to get students to engage in discussions now than it was before the lockdown.

“That period of time with Covid — we were just ourselves, we were away from people it became very easy to get into a bad rut of not being around people or not conforming to another schedule,” Riffer said, “That’s not a universally bad thing, but it does tend to pull us away from engaging in the community at large — some people just haven’t gotten out of those habits.”

Though student participation won’t increase drastically any time soon, Riffer believes everyone is making progress by inserting themselves back into social environments.

“As human beings, we need to engage with each other — not virtually, but face to face, person to person,” Riffer said. “It’s not only important for our mental health, but it’s true for our societal health that the more we engage with each other, the more we invest in our society and in each other, [valuing] our shared fates.”

design by kylee thompson