As we are all painfully aware, the time between classes has been devastatingly shortened to five minutes. The precious five minutes that we lost used to be used for water bottle fill-ups, bathroom breaks, emergency cram studying, and quickly scribbling down that homework you forgot was due. In order to arrive to class before the bell and save a little time for those last minute emergencies, we all need to follow a few simple hallway rules.

1. Do not walk slow. Pick up the pace please. It is perfectly reasonable to be talking to your friends or cram studying for a quiz between classes, but do these things while walking at an acceptable pace.
2. No PDA. Nobody wants to see that. If you and your significant other can wait until after school to be affectionate, it would be greatly appreciated. (Side note: No PDA at lunch. We are trying to eat. It’s gross.)
3. No holding hands in the hallway. It completely blocks anyone from getting around you. Holding hands AND walking slow is absolutely unacceptable. Additionally, holding hands spreads germs even faster around the school. To prevent illness and irritation please refrain from holding hands in the hallways.
4. Do not all use one door when there is another door 3 ft away. This creates a huge traffic jam, so please just use more than one door.
5. Don’t stop in the middle of the hallway to talk to your friends. If two friends stop to chat, then another friend sees them and stops, then another, and another, until eventually the entire walkway is blocked by a circle of friends who are completely oblivious to their inconvenient obstruction. The hallways are for walking not gathering.
6. Don’t tailgate. It is extremely irritating when the kid behind you keeps stepping on the backs of your shoes and you have to do that awkward hop-stomp thing to get your shoe back on. Or when you’re trying to walk and they keep nudging your bookbag which makes you nudge the bookbag in front of you which domino effects until someone ends up falling down. So, please follow the person in front of you at a respectable distance.
7. For those of you who do not know, there are THREE stairwells in this school. Every single person does not need to use the middle stairwell, it causes a huge traffic jam. When there are 100 people on the stairs at one time, it is inevitable that someone will trip-up and be publicly embarrassed (I know from experience). To avoid this disaster, start taking the other stairwells.
8. Do not leave your locker wide open. If you are looking down at your notes studying for a quiz between classes and suddenly you smack into an open locker, it really ruins your day (I also happen to know this from experience). Just as a courtesy to your fellow classmates, please close your locker.
9. Don’t stand directly in front of the door to a classroom when people are trying to exit. How do you expect for people to get out if you are blocking the door??? Stand to the side and form a line against the wall like civilized people, and wait until everyone has exited the classroom until you enter.
10. Absolutely do not be a salmon. Walking upstream during the rush of class changes is unacceptable. Don’t be “that guy” that walks on the opposite side of the hallway as everyone else. You should always hug the right wall, just like driving in the right lane. Walking on the wrong side of the stairs is not only dangerous, but incredibly annoying to everyone who is walking on the correct side. Follow the flow of the stream, and under no circumstances should you be a salmon.

Even though most of these rules should be common sense, it is important that we all recognize and follow them accordingly to ensure our arrival to class on time.