Painting senior parking spots is a tradition that is done by hundreds of high schools across the nation. It is a chance for students to express themselves and personalize a spot of their own through positive and creative artwork.
Similar to Senior Sunrise, it is a chance for students to gather together, make memories, have a fun experience, celebrate and commemorate their last year before they head off for the rest of their lives. Seniors get together before the school year begins in August, and, with all their supplies, begin painting their parking spots. This can be turned into an entire event, with food, music and an all-time high school spirit.
Earlier in the 2024-25 school year, parking spots in C-lot could be seen covered in chalk with colorful names of students and drawings that reflected bits of their personality. But there was one problem with this: impermanence. The first rain that swept through the parking lot wiped away any trace of the chalk and left the asphalt bare. With painted spots, this would be avoided and the artwork would last all school year.
Historically, MI has never had seniors paint a parking spot, even when the school had assigned spots a couple of years ago. Now that these spots are back, this potential opportunity has arisen and although the idea is new, it garners support from many people.
“I love it. I think any creativity, anything that shows student voice is amazing. And that’s what we want, we want this to be your school,” Associate Principal Erica Hill said.
With approval from the administration (at least by Mrs. Hill) on the idea of allowing seniors to paint their parking spots, it still leaves room for many fundamental questions. What type of paint will be used? Will students with spots not at C-lot be allowed to paint their spots? How will this be afforded? How will it be overseen so that nothing inappropriate is painted? Will seniors in future years build up layers of paint and simply cover the previous year’s art? Who will be in charge of this experience? Will the rest of the administration even allow this to happen?
If all these questions can be answered and sorted out, will MIHS take it a step further and plan this event? As it is usually done in the summer before school starts, it is far past the time for our 2025 grads to paint their spots. But, this doesn’t mean that our upcoming juniors are left out of this opportunity. Could next year’s seniors begin a new tradition at MIHS?
