With five semesters completed, juniors entering their second semester are looking forward to saying hello to parking permits and goodbye to the big yellow bus.

From the first day of kindergarten to the start of high school, each day for many students started with a walk to the bus stop and a ride to school.

The kindergarten bus ride was one of the scariest rides of my life.  I wore a yellow bus card that told the teachers where I belonged, because I myself didn’t know, as I sat anxiously in the front seat.  I was forced to listen to the big kids with neon-yellow patrol belts give convoluted instructions that did nothing to help me, but rather simply let fifth graders exercise their school-granted police powers.

As I continued through elementary school, I ventured further and further down the bus rows. Finally, in fifth grade it was time for me to be a bus patrol myself.  One of the greatest things about riding the bus in my last year of elementary school was that I was now the one exercising school-sanctioned power.

Then just like that, elementary school was behind me and I became a “Pyle Panther,” and was, once again, back at the bottom of the food chain.  The sixth grade bus ride was strange.  Kids stood in the aisles even though it was against the rules.  It was like a metro ride.

The bus rides were loud in middle school as everyone laughed and shouted, especially in the afternoon.  The bus driver told everyone to sit down over the loud speaker but everyone continued to stand because it was fun and “cool.”

Seventh grade found me right in the middle—literally, in terms of school years and my row on the bus.

In eighth grade I was again the top dog on the bus and one of those eighth graders who thought they ruled those back seats.  Seventh graders daring to sit in our territory were subject to a stare down until they got the hint.  There was never a dull moment on the bus ride to and from middle school, but that was about to change.

High school transformed me from a “Panther” to a “Viking.”  As I got on the bus on the hot, humid August morning that marked the first day of high school, it took me right back to kindergarten.  As I climbed the steps of the bus, there were many open seats and it didn’t matter where I sat.  Rather than the rowdy gang I sat with in middle school, high school bus rides brought silence as kids tried to catch a few more Z’s before first period, and that’s when I knew things had changed.

The bus ride to school is a part of the school experience for many students.  For some second semester juniors, getting their new parking permits is simply a step towards an easier morning commute, but for me, it’s the end of an era.