When I didn’t get housing for my sophomore year, I made sure to pick an apartment close to campus so I could commute there as painlessly as possible. Luckily, I have a car, so I bought myself a parking pass and figured that was that.

But, just because you have a pass, doesn’t necessarily mean you get to park.
I learned a lot of things the first week of school. Such as, if you’re going to park in Binkley Garage, you need to have extremely good luck. I recommend a few rabbit’s feet and maybe some four leaf clovers. A horseshoe doesn’t hurt either.

Because basically what you’ll end up doing is circling the place waiting for someone to leave, and then jump on their spot. Keep in mind that multiple other students will be circling like vultures.

I’ve found myself suddenly wishing I had a smart car, because I could probably manage to squeeze it into the parking spots no one can take because the car on the adjacent side parked over the line.

Those are the worst kind of people, the kind of people that just want to watch the
world burn.

It’s a battlefield out there. Do everyone a favor and stay in your space. Please.
I opt out of Binkley Garage, and usually end up on the roof of Airline Parking Garage. They might as well have a spot up there with my name on it.

My car has black interior, so after a long day of classes I come back to an oven. What’s even more fun is that the elevator works about fifty percent of the time. So usually I get a free workout hiking up to the top. But at least I have a spot.

If your first class is later than 10 a.m., don’t even try.

But just when I thought maybe I had this process down, I realized I had forgotten one important factor: game days.

Because SMU students are not allowed to park anywhere on their campus while their football team is playing, those who do live there have to move their cars to the outermost parking lots. Also known as the parking lots most of us commuters use.
I didn’t even bother on Friday. Luckily I have a saint of a friend who didn’t have class and offered to drop me off near mine.

“But wait!” you say. “There’s a bus!”

Yes, yes there is.

But the bus, especially on game days, has been extremely full as of late. Did you see the email encouraging students to look for alternate routes of transportation?

To be fair, the bus does work for a lot of people, but I just personally suck at catching it. The moments when I have made the bus has been the result of an all-out sprint.

So if you don’t want to bother with the bus, and you do use an alternative form of transportation, you’re likely to end up back where you started: on the roof of Airline Parking Garage.

Deraleau is a junior majoring in journalism.