As far as I (and, I suspect, most high school students) are concerned, nothing beats the feeling of being able to leave the classroom following a long day at school. No matter whether you’re falling asleep in class, cooling off from a run, or dutifully working on an in-class essay, the loud ring of the final school bell produces a Pavlovian reaction in everyone.

Naturally, the subsequent rush outside is a bit pushy and crowded. Last year, and the year before that, my only respite was to head into the bus loading area, relax, and hope not to get squished like a sardine as I was waiting for my bus.

This year, that no longer seems to be an option.

The loss of five district bus drivers caused mass amounts of mayhem in the beginning of the year, and has continued to do so.

The first week and a half of school, I was frantically running from bus to bus and texting friends in the hope that one of them would know which bus route I was meant to be taking. If I was a freshman, this may have been normal behavior. As a junior, who’s attended this school for three years, and rode the bus for all three? Not so much.

The buses were overcrowded with students, sometimes requiring three to a seat, and any ham handed attempts to better the situation and only left more confusion in their wake. The only people who knew what was going on were, seemingly, the bus drivers and the people who patrol at the gate.

I saw students wait in long lines for what they assumed to be their bus, only to have to get up at the last minute and rush outside to figure out what bus route they should really take.

The constant back and forth, switching buses to prevent overcrowding, and general unclear exchange of information was the worst possible way to go about this change. Frankly, the only way this experience could have been worsened was if somebody decided to light one of the buses on fire. Though maybe then they wouldn’t be quite as crowded.