Why is it that nobody seems to know how to park? I have to arrive at class thirty-five minutes early just so I can hit up two different parking structures and hope I get lucky. I often wonder if parking is a problem at every school, or if it’s a unique pain at SMU. 

Parking ticket people seem so unnecessary. Not having a front plate (so I can’t back into a spot)- Ticket. Forgetting to put on my hazards when I am dropping something off or picking someone up – Ticket. Not parking in the correct zone -Ticket . 

Once, I even paid for a two hour parking spot and they still gave me a ticket. That made me mad enough to go in and defend my parking rights. I felt pretty proud of myself when I was given an apology and not another ticket when they realized that they had made a mistake. 

And then there’s the fact that even people with carts that practically park for them, with surround parking assistance cameras, who still cannot manage to park in between the lines, which makes my life with a truck miserable, especially when there are no oversize or SUV reserved spots on campus.  There’s even difficulty navigating within the garages because people like to whip around the turns and go 40 miles an hour in the farages. It really is a fight for your life in these garages, and sometimes I’m a winner and more often I am not.

And lets say I finally find a spot , it is usually a 20 minute walk to my class, which then turns into a spring because it took me so long to find the spot to begin with that my extra thirty minutes allotted time is often not enough. So when I am late to class and my professor gives me a look, I assure you it is not my fault, but the fault of the parking gods at SMU.