Annie Green was ready for her first day of school as a freshman. She was ready to continue to use the same way of transportation as she had for the past years. Ever since elementary school, Green had her mother drive her to and from school every day. And even though now she was in high school, she expected the same thing would continue.
“I’ve usually done car drives most of my life,” Green said. “So it’s kind of the usual system that we have.”
The tradition of getting driven to school by a parent started all the way back in elementary school. Due to going to a private school, she didn’t have a bus system to take her to school every day. This started the idea of her parents driving her, something Green would continue.
A few years later, in middle school, Green continued to get driven to school for a similar reason. She was attending a public school in Dexter, despite living in Ann Arbor. Because of this, there was no bus system available to transport Green around her school system.
Despite having the opportunity to use a bus in high school, Green considers them too loud. She recommends people get driven to school if possible, as it is more private. It also allows people to simply get up every day without having to worry about walking to the bus stop every day.
Green doesn’t particularly believe that her transport will change in the next few years. Her system works well, and there’s no reason to change.
As a freshman, Greta Daum-Bost has to find her way to school for the first time. While getting to school may be a struggle for some, Daum-Bost has a good system. Every day, Daum-Bost carpools with two of her friends, whose mother drives them to school. While they do get to school, Daum-Boast and her friends are dropped off at her friend’s mother’s office in downtown Ann Arbor. The walk from the office to Community is about five minutes.
“We felt that it would be like too much for all three of us to drive separately,” Daum-Bost said. “Especially if there was a way to do it altogether.”
On her way home, Daum-Bost takes a different path. Due to split enrollment, she ends the day at Huron. From Huron, she takes a school bus back to an elementary school near her house, where she walks home from. The walk from the school to her house is about ten minutes.
For new students, Daum-Bost suggests getting someone who can drive them first before relying on the city bus. While she says that the city is nice, driving allows her to get to a specific class at a specific time. With her first year at Community getting going, Daum-Bost is glad to have a comfortable and reliable way to get to school.
Yohanna Garashi has a similar yet different approach. As a junior, she has a lot of experience with moving there and back to school. When it comes to getting to school, Garashi has a good strategy. Ever since she was a freshman, her dad has dropped her off on his way to work, which, for Garashi, has been effective.
To get home, as a split-enrolled student, Garashi uses the Huron school buses. She takes the school bus from Huron back to a middle school near her house. From there, it’s about a mile-long walk from the middle school to her house. Although on some days, Garashi has her chemistry class at Huron and has to stay after school for a lab. When this happens, she has her mom pick her up to drive home.
Later in the year, Garashi hopes to drive to school herself. Despite not being able to park in the CHS parking lot as a junior, she hopes to be able to park next to a curb somewhere near Community. As high school continues to go on for Garashi, she is ready for whatever she has to do to travel around her schools.
With students of different grades, everyone’s transportation ideas and beliefs are slightly different. Even so, they all do what is most comfortable with them. No matter if they change or not, all students have their passage around school.
