Here’s a situation that a lot of you’ve probably been in, probably today: you’re irritably walking through the hallway after taking a huge test and when you reach the stairwell a group of students are blocking it. After pushing through them to get to the stairs, it only gets worse. The stairs are packed with students literally moving a centimeter a minute. Trying to calm yourself down, you take a few deep breaths but you can’t because the crowded stairwell smells like a week old Big Mac that someone left in their car.

The worst thing ever is being stuck in the middle of a mass of random people who you don’t know with absolutely no way out. It gets even worse when some of them don’t have good hygiene. Obviously everyone sweats, it’s part of human life but there are ways to prevent yourself from smelling bad from sweating. If you tend to be the type of person who sweats a lot and you find yourself producing a not so pleasant odor, you may want to take necessary precautions.

If you notice that you aren’t smelling too great, chances are that it’s likely that other students will notice it too- especially if you’re walking close to people in the hallway. Every student has had a moment in time where they haven’t been smelling their greatest and there’s no need to be shameful about it- because that’s life. But just remember that we are all here five days a week; six hours a day whether we like it or not, so we all might as well take a shower, put on some deodorant, and come to school smelling relatively clean so that we don’t make another student’s school day worse than it should be by ruining the nice fresh air to breathe in the hallways.
It’s difficult to fix a school-wide problem when there are over 2,000 students in the school, but that doesn’t mean an attempt to spread awareness of keeping good hygiene and walking a little bit faster in the hallway can’t be made. Walking through the hallway between classes should be a break for students to catch some air, get some space and talk to their friends. Stopping in the middle of the hallway where people are trying to walk or just walking way too slow makes it almost impossible for students to have a pleasant break between classes.

So students, be considerate of others, keep good hygiene so we can all get some fresh air in the hallway and please remember that all of us have places to be so it would be super helpful for everyone to walk a bit faster in the hallway. Maybe shower before school or put on some extra deodorant so when there are times when we are all really close to each other in the hallways, we don’t have to be smothered in the deathly smell of BO coming from our sweaty armpits.

Amy Weintraub

Staff Writer