Exhausted from having to wake up at 6 a.m. and barely getting to school on time due to the 25 minutes of traffic-filled driving, you are overjoyed when the end of the day finally comes.
Uh-oh. You get a text from your parents saying that they’re not going to be able to pick you up from your after-school practice and that you need to find a ride. This wouldn’t normally be a problem but, unfortunately for you, a person willing to drive over 10 minutes out of their way is hard to come by.
Now who would give you a ride? You start asking around, fully aware of the inevitable. “Your house is a brick away,” they tell you repetitively.
Finally you have to offer them money for their “troubles,” and distance suddenly doesn’t matter anymore.
Due to the territory of this school, students are living closer to Quince Orchard while they get an education here. According to Google Maps, students Mary Quackenbush and Nick Gracyalny have a 16-minute drive to get to this school if they take the fastest route and a 12-minute drive to Quince Orchard. Quackenbush said, “Why don’t we go to QO? It would be so much easier.”
Living further from school gives the disadvantage of a longer commute because of both distance and traffic. “I definitely feel like I get more rest because I don’t have to worry about the time it takes to get to school,” Breen said.
According to the bus arrival route report, students have to be at their bus stop by 6:30 a.m.. Gracyalny said, “The biggest disadvantage for being far away would be early bus rides.”
Quackenbush said the biggest disadvantages for her are that, “you don’t have the convenience of going home whenever,” and that, “you have to wait a long time before you go home.”
US News ranked this school fourth in the state while QO remains unranked. This may be considered an upside to living in this school’s territory. Gracyalny, if given the option to go to QO or this school, said, “I would stay at Wootton.”
Seniors and juniors don’t like to use their freedom of driving to give rides to underclassmen. Especially when the underclassman live in a neighborhood out of their way. “No one ever wants to drive out there,” Quackenbush said.
People who choose to live in the middle of nowhere say that they enjoy the peacefulness and serenity of being off the grid. Surprisingly, not all agree. Quackenbush said, “There aren’t really any advantages,” for living far away from this school.

Chloe Perel

Staff Writer