TRANSCRIPT

Haley Oeur  

Hi, I’m Haley, I’m the Online Managing Editor of The Purple Tide. Today we’re going to be doing a little podcast. We’re going to be ranking the parking spots at Chantilly High School. Here with me, I have two seniors and I’m going to let them introduce themselves.

Mallina Shah  

Hi, my name is Mallina. I’m a senior.

Chris Soares  

Hi, I’m Chris. I’m also a senior here at Chantilly.

Haley Oeur  

We’re here to talk about the parking at our school. What a time, what an experience. We all drive to school. I’m going to first off mention [that] I park near the tennis courts kind of by the basketball courts. Mallina, where do you park?

Mallina Shah  

I park by the West Lot, which is, like, by the baseball fields right across Chantilly, like, right at the front where all the parents are doing their carpool.

Chris Soares  

And I currently park in the back of the academy, [the] little cluster of cars there.

Haley Oeur  

And you parked in band lot last year. Very cool. Mallina, I could already hear some tone when you were describing your current parking situation—we’re gonna get into that. Mallina has been telling me recently about her situation with parking, I’m gonna let her talk about this, because she has a whole story.

Mallina Shah  

I have an online class, my second period, which is off campus, so I get to sleep in the morning—which is great—but I show up to school at 9:30 a.m. every other day. And I don’t know why, but in, like, the first two weeks of school, someone has parked in my spot three different times. And I have literally left notes that have gotten increasingly more angry and passive, telling people to get out of my spot. And it’s really funny because it’s the first spot that you find that’s numbered when you go into the lot. So if it’s empty, people just assume that they can park there. And it’s annoying, because I paid $200 for that spot.

Haley Oeur  

Yeah, hot take, it’s not the kids, it’s the literal parents that park in the spots. It’s actually so horrible, that drop off line and parking everywhere, it’s not great.

Chris Soares  

Not good at all.

Mallina Shah  

It’s also really funny because they’re not used to the way we park, how the cars move in the lot. So when I’m trying to get out, I’ll come out, but my turn has to be quick enough where I’m going in between two cars, and it needs to be sharp enough that I’m not going into the other lane. And so I’ve had people honk at me after I finished turning, but I’ve not touched anyone because the parents just don’t understand how quick and tight the turning is.

Haley Oeur  

It’s kind of not good at all. Here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna compare the pros and cons of each spot. So I’ve heard lots about West Lot, obviously. West Lot, there’s one pro. The main reason people choose to park there. You get out really quick, like, you get out within five minutes, you get out. However, there’s some downsides to this. I hear about a lot of accidents in West Lot. I hear about how rushed it is at West Lot. I hear about how cramped it is at West Lot. Mallina, how easy is it for you to like—obviously, we just heard what happens to you in West Lot—but like, yeah, describe your experience.

Mallina Shah  

I would say… I live on the right side of Chantilly, which means that turns, you have to either be in the lane to turn left out of Chantilly High School, or you have to be on the opposite side turning right, because there’s no other way to turn left. And so, if you’re living on right side of Chantilly, honestly, West Lot becomes one of the best options because it’s the easiest to get out without having to worry about the light that never turns green. And getting in, it’s also the shorter line because everybody goes through carpool on the right lane to get to the school. So getting in and getting out are usually quicker and timing. But again, because of the carpool lanes, they’ll go through the entrance and then take like a swift U-turn and clog up the entrance of West Lot, so you’ll see like the back of West Lot is completely deserted, but the front is just like a human stampede.

Haley Oeur  

Hmm. Christopher. Okay, describe your experience in the mods or in the band lot.

Chris Soares  

So last year, when I was in the band lot, it was a very traumatic experience. I have never gotten more dirty looks ever in my life until I actually parked there. I’m one who likes to back into spots because it’s easier to get out, especially when people are going all over the place, so I usually back into spots, but no matter how many times people would see me do it, they would always somehow go behind me while I’m reversing into my spot. And it’s always so scary. And I’m like, How can you be so unobservant and to the point where I can almost crash into you? And, like, it happens so many times.

Haley Oeur  

How was your experience in the academy?

Chris Soares  

Academy? It’s a bit better in a way: there’s less commotion, but it’s still kind of bad because number one, my biggest complaint is that the spots in the Academy are not meant for big cars and as someone who drives a Traverse—which is really big—the problem is that the spot is too small for my car. So I can never find a really great position where I will be able to get out and my sister who I dropped off will be able to get out. So it’s always judging based on the day like, am I going to not have room to get out and let my sister have it? Or am I going to be selfish and give myself room because I really don’t want to deal with hitting Navya’s car?

Haley Oeur  

We’re gonna shift to the main part of this podcast, we’re gonna rank each of the parking spots. So what I have here, I have a little list here. The parking spots, as follows: West Lot, library, Stringfellow, band lot, baseball fields, tennis courts, basketball courts, behind the school. Do we want to go at least the best?

Mallina Shah  

I think least to best. That’s, like, easier. None of the spots are good, let’s be real.

Haley Oeur  

It could be a lot better. I think the main issue to me is that we have two entrances into the school. And I can only go into one entrance basically—exit—because of the turning rules. So that’s annoying. I’d like to start off and say that library parking,

Mallina Shah  

Easily.

Haley Oeur  

Easily the worst.

Chris Soares  

Yeah, like, why would you park there?

Haley Oeur  

I don’t know one singular person who parks there.

Mallina Shah

I do. Actually. It’s literally at the back of the library, like right next to the neighborhoods and he’s always talking about how he literally got the worst spot because it takes him 15 minutes to get to his spot and then drive home. And I mean, honestly, you should be home in 15 minutes, like we are at that age where the reason you get a parking spot is to get home faster. Honestly, that just sounds atrocious. Imagine having to pay $200 for a parking spot. But, like, there’s no light either. You literally have to either jaywalk and risk your life or walk all the way to West Lot.

Haley Oeur  

And then walk down Stringfellow. It’s so long. Are there no other spots that he could have parked in? That’s kind of horrible.

Chris Soares  

Did he choose it?

Mallina Shah  

No. And the thing is everyone races to fill out that form as fast as they can, but then everything goes up to seniority. Like I would not have gotten a good spot had I been a junior, because he literally did it the second the form came out.

Haley Oeur  

What do we want to put next?

Chris Soares  

I would say next should probably be…

Mallina Shah  

I’m going with band lot. Just because of the fact that you have to move your car before 3:15 p.m. or something during football season.

Chris Soares  

In my opinion, along with band lot, I would also say Stringfellow does suck a lot, because it kind of correlates with the traffic that you had to deal with in band lot. The only exit from Stringfellow, you have to go into the band lot to get out, which means that you’re merging with all the people who are trying to exit at once from Band Lot, which is honestly way worse.

Mallina Shah  

They really need to make another exit, like, from there. Just because, I mean, obviously you would only be able to turn it right but at least traffic would move so much faster getting out because the buses are also on that lane.

Haley Oeur  

They’re on the lane. When I go home, I have to either wait the buses out or I have to go this convoluted route. But yeah, I actually think Stringfellow is marginally better just because you don’t have to move your car. But at the same time that merge is crazy.

Mallina Shah  

I think Stringfellow is above band lot specifically, because those lines too, Band Lot has three lanes, basically. And if you’re like the first two lanes, that is where every single car, if you’re dropping off or you’re parking chooses to go. So unless you’re in the second lane where there’s nobody, and you can kind of get in a little bit easier, you’re waiting through that traffic, you’re

Haley Oeur  

Waiting. Yeah,

Chris Soares  

I would have to say,

Mallina Shah  

I think I’m gonna go with the…

Chris Soares  

Baseball field.

Haley Oeur  

Similar, similar to band lot. I feel like it’s also tied. 

Mallina Shah  

I would go baseball just because you don’t have room to move your car, I don’t think. That’s marginally better. But then again, traffic.

Haley Oeur  

Yeah, if we’re going to a new region of the school, I would go… do I think West Lot or my spot is worse? That’s the real question.

Mallina Shah  

I think next should be basketball. Part of me thinks… no, I think tennis courts are worse just because

Haley Oeur  

You’re right off of buses.

Mallina Shah  

No, not not only buses, but you’re right off those two lanes that are passing and you’re backing out into oncoming traffic, and you have kids going at, like, 90 miles per hour down that lane.

Haley Oeur  

That’s what I have. We’ll put that next. So I feel like basketball courts has got to be right after though.

Mallina Shah  

At least it’s secluded.

Haley Oeur  

It is secluded. They have a little section there. I think that’s a little easy to park into because it’s its own little area. But okay, this leaves I think West Lot and like back of the school. Which one do we think is better?

Chris Soares  

Back of the school.

Mallina Shah  

See, my bias goes towards where you live, because if you live towards 50, going in the back of the academy is probably one of the best options because you can get out so quickly. And parking there’s really nice because if you have classes that are not towards the front of the school, it just makes life easier. Plus, getting in and getting out you can go to the second entrance and not have to worry about it. But if you’re looking on the left side towards Poplar Tree, West Lot makes so much more sense because you can turn right.

Haley Oeur  

Yeah.

Mallina Shah  

You know, I risk my life every day coming to Chantilly to park. Like, I just realized that.

Haley Oeur  

I’m gonna say that West Lot and back of the school are tied, but for different reasons, just depending on where you live. I think we’ve covered a lot of bases here, guys. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being here.

Chris Soares  

Thank you for having us. 

Mallina Shah  

Thank you so much. No, I actually love this. Yeah,

Chris Soares  

Do more of this.

Mallina Shah  

For sure.

Haley Oeur  

Thank you. And that’s it. That’s the podcast.