Along with the many hard changes COVID-19 brought to our school, a more exciting one was presented to the seniors: being able to paint their own parking spots.

This new tradition was originally given to the class of 2021 as a way to make their senior year more enjoyable during the pandemic. This new privilege can now be seen as a great way to kick off each class’s last year of high school.

Early Saturday morning on August 6, the class of 2023 was putting in the work on their parking spots, a privilege recently given to the seniors of St. George’s. While some students’ designs only took them an hour or two, other students like Mariah Nellessen spent five hours working on their designs.

Nellesen said she “wanted something that isn’t regular” and wanted to have an original design for her spot. She was able to find inspiration for her spot by looking at different examples of dorm room art to piece together the exact design she wanted.

Other students, like James Christie, found inspiration through music. He was inspired specifically by the song “Good Morning” from Kanye West’s album Graduation. The album title is quite fitting for senior year, so it just made sense for James to choose a song from that album. The song “Good Morning” serves as a reminder to James to do just that: have a good morning.

Christie spent “too long” working on his design, which took him two hours. James felt it was the “most artistically ambitious thing [he’s] ever done”.

Another student who had to test their artistic abilities was senior Clara Vincente. Vicente wanted to do something that held meaning to her while keeping her design “fun and cool”.

She drew inspiration from her favorite TV show, Rick and Morty, and looked up a picture of her design to make sure it looked perfect. Although she used a reference, Vincente wanted to make sure she “made it [her] own” by adding some of her own creative ideas to her design.

Painting parking spaces allows seniors to express themselves while also making the parking lot much more interesting for the rest of the students. A senior class favorite, it’s sure to be a staple in the years to come.