There is a parking crisis in school—there are too many cars, with too few parking spaces. Every morning, I ask myself if I am going to get a parking lot today. Sometimes, I refuse to drive because I am afraid to lose my parking space and never find one again, and it’s ironic because why then do I drive if I plan to walk anyway?
Today I couldn’t even successfully apply for April’s season parking, because it was fully sold out. Yet, today is the first day where the application window for season parking opens. Parking is a battle on campus, and instead of getting angry at all those who threaten my parking space, I reasoned that everyone is just like me. Frustrated, but helpless. Something needs to be done, but whatever that should happen is not going to happen anytime soon.
Anyway, that’s not the main point. The main point is that soon, I won’t be driving in school any longer. I have a few more months with this car, and then that’s it. I will never have to fight for parking with anyone again. In a sense, I am even mildly relieved. I will never have to race other drivers to the parking lot, I will never get angry at drivers who can’t do a proper parking job, and I will never need to worry about not getting my season parking anymore.
But until then, everything now is still a fight. Everything now is still a battle of parking lots, even “illegal” ones. When I’m getting the car, I can anticipate another driver eagerly waiting to take my lot immediately after I leave, and it’s not at all a nice feeling. It’s definitely a first world problem, and a problem of the privileged, but it’s a problem that has been constantly bothering me anyway.
But soon, I will bid this problem goodbye. I will miss the convenience of a car terribly, I will miss everything about it. I will miss effortless midnight suppers, dinners out of school which I am almost taking for granted. But I will be happy to be rid of the worry of finding parking in this impossible place.
Until then, it’s a fight to saying the last goodbye. Until then, every day that I painstakingly look for parking lots will be one less grumble until finally, I don’t get to grumble about it anymore. And then, I will probably miss grumbling about it.
; 