On Tuesday night, all I wanted was to get Chick-fil-A with one of my best friends. Unfortunately, in order to do that, I had to give up my premium parking spot: a spot in the Founders Hall lot that was only five spaces from my home, Mills Hall.
I reluctantly gave up my space and successfully retrieved my Chick-Fil-A. Yay! I was tearing into my fries while I dropped off my friend at Aspen Hall. There were no spaces available in the Woods area. It was 8:45 p.m. and I was so ready to sit down on my couch, watch an episode of Derry Girls and veg out, but the parking gods were not in my favor.
I drove up to the Founders lot and was very disappointed to find that there were absolutely zero available parking spaces. It was so packed there was even a Miata parked in-between the curb and a car, in one of those areas with the diagonal white lines, where you are absolutely not allowed to park.
My next attempt at finding parking was in the Ponder/Ridges deck and it should have been of no surprise to me that once again there was not a free parking space in sight. I milled around in the roundabout hoping someone would leave and I was elated when they did until I went to the top deck to find a girl standing in the now free space.
All I could do was laugh. I looked at the girl and rolled down my window to ask her why she was there even though I already knew the answer. She put her pointer finger to her lips and smiled awkwardly as she told me “I’m saving it for someone, they’re coming back up now.”
I cut my losses and decided to try and find my long-awaited parking space in the secret spot that has never failed me, a gravel lot tucked behind the student rec center that faces the track. I was stunned when I saw that even there, no spaces were available.
I have quite literally never seen that lot full, so I was not feeling hopeful about finding a space in the Brown Hall lot. I decided I would manifest it because I absolutely refuse to break my almost year-long streak of avoiding parking in the first-year lots.
If there is anything I can do to avoid walking up those stairs again, I will do it, so I said a prayer and thankfully the parking gods heard me. I found a parking spot towards the very end of the Brown Hall lot!
Finding parking on campus can be really difficult, so I implore anyone who has a car here to not make it that much harder for everybody else by parking very crooked or over the lines. Good luck on your parking ventures! May the parking gods be ever in your favor.
