We have all seen those reckless drivers speeding past as they cut you off on the winding roads of the Delta College campus.
Or the people who become increasingly furious waiting for the closest parking spot, making you give up finding the perfect radio station or fixing your sunglasses, which would make that desperate individual grow angrier with every long second spent waiting.
These sights are a commonplace in the daily life of a car driving student on Delta College.
From an objective and cool headed point of view we should calm down people.
I have been driving at Delta College ever since Fall 2016 with the mentality rude gestures and screaming matches were something I would never have to endure as a good citizen of Stockton.
My hopes and dreams got shattered at community college.
According to the Delta College Master Plan there are 6,340 parking spaces at the Stockton campus.
That’s two daytime students for every one parking spot.
As expected our place of learning descends to anarchy.
We are so quick to direct words that our moms would not let us get away with when someone is not cooperating to our convenience in the parking lot.
One morning this semester I wanted to get to class early but the parking lot was proving to be a bigger obstacle than anticipated.
Just as I thought my luck had changed I raced to the open spot on the fourth row of the Shima parking lot another student beat me and kept me from my goal.
As I was about to talk like a sailor at sea I saw that it was a fellow journalism student that I get along with.
At that moment all spite and anger faded and I even started to be sympathetic hoping his car would fit in the tighter spot.
This rage was instantly gone just because I already knew him.
What’s worse is the next time I saw him he gave a similar explanation of his anger then sympathy.
Now imagine us drivers driving fast with children from the pre-school or another student with his earphones playing music at top volumes in the mix.
The way of life brought by driving at the roads of Delta College in my explanation might be an exaggeration for some lucky drivers, but many of us have a story of a close call exiting the Locke lot or barely missed car of a fellow student in the Shima lot.
“I was pulling out of my space when this huge truck makes a bad stop and waits for me to get out but I had my dad’s van and it’s like driving a tank through the city,” said Dante Thomas Tirapelle describing his first driving story at Delta.
“So he starts to wait there and I was trying to go fast without hitting his dixie truck. As I was starting to turn he starts honking his obnoxious horn when I’m try to not destroy the cars next to me,” Thomas said.
There is no reason to be so easily infuriated at the small problems of the Delta College parking lot.
We as fellow students should calm down from our pent up rage and look out for the wellbeing of all of us.
