It’s the first day of school! You’re a Freshman, getting ready to enter the dazzling splendor of the high school world. Your stomach is in knots as you get ready for school and head off through the intertwining roads of the Triangle to arrive at the front doors of Enloe High School. You are nervous but excited as you ponder the possibilities of your future while peering out of the car window, and suddenly the car starts to slow. A line of cars stretching farther than you can see appears ahead of you. “Maybe it’s just a small backup!” you think to yourself, but as you creep closer to the hellhole of the Carpool Line, you realize that there is no way that you will make it to your first period class on time. 

While carpool seems like an efficient way to get to school on time, this year’s process has been quite less than quick. Every day, students flock to school through the carpool line, and with cars streaming from every possible direction one’s eye can see, it seems that most students are getting into the building just in time for the end of the school day.

However, have no fear! If you are an Enloe parent or student carpool user, this article was made for you, with love. For by the end, you, personally, will have been granted with wisdom, tips, and help on how to survive the process every morning, courtesy of students who have braved the process day in and day out. 

One Enloe student shared information with the Eagle’s Eye about her former and current experience with the carpool line, in an attempt to give some insight into the jumble of cars we so dreadfully encounter every school day. Sarah Kyeba, an Enloe Junior, delightfully shared her previous experience in arriving at Enloe: “It took no time at all. My dad would just drop me off, super quickly.” This year, Sarah’s experience hasn’t been quite as fortunate. In a one word response, the carpool connoisseur described this year’s line as “monstrous” and “complicated”. With students and cars pooling through the delicate roads on and around campus, Sarah’s words definitely ring a bell.

Even though the woeful drop-off seems too late to change, luckily, the Enloe Eagle’s Eye has some beneficial tips and tricks to help your carpool experience turn from scary to smooth! 

—

Firstly, roads do not act as a carpool lane! If you want to drop off correctly at Enloe, running through a busy road is not the way to do it! Being safe and using the carpool lane as a carpool lane and the road as a road will help everyone around you, and will most importantly, help YOU.

Secondly, taking turns is an effective way to make sure that everyone is happy. Everyone is trying to get to first period! Don’t cut and push your way through to get there. Making sure everyone has the chance to even drive up the road to school is a wonderful and friendly way to help a friend (or stranger) out.

Helpful tip number three! Another great way to get through the carpool lane is to use the road for driving straight, and the turning lane to turn! If you didn’t already know, when a lane has a large arrow pointing to the left or right, that means that it is a turning lane. If it says to turn, the most effective mode of travel may not be to go straight through it and cut into another lane. 

Another big tip is to be confident in your driving. Get to where you need to go. If you are in the carpool lane, parked 15 feet behind the car in front of you, people will get mad. Being efficient and confident in your driving is one of our top three ways to be a better carpool user, and a universally admired person. 

On the topic of being efficient, storing fifteen instruments in your broken car trunk will hold up the carpool line slightly. Please make sure that you are only bringing what you need to school, and have easy access to it! In addition to this, if you are a parent, please don’t take five minutes to hug your student goodbye. In the wise words of Sarah Kyeba, “Don’t waste time saying goodbye to your child. Just let them get out of the car.”

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, be smart. If you aren’t feeling up-to-date on your driving abilities, it may be worth revisiting information on how to operate a car. Feel free to take a trip to this hot guide on how to drive!  We give our ultimate thanks to WikiHow for generously gifting their sacred information to the Eagle’s Eye Staff. You can use this information to infer key information such as- if the left turn light onto Clarendon Crescent is red, it is not smart to turn left when there is not enough room for you. You will block a large amount of cars, containing very angry people. These people will honk! It will not be pretty.

If you use these top tips and tricks wisely, you will be sure to get through the carpool line as efficiently as possible! If you aren’t improving, well, maybe take a break from driving for a bit. It’s probably on you. Taking the bus is a wonderful option. Regardless, thank you for consuming the content of this article in an attempt to become a better driver. And/Or human. The Enloe Eagle’s Eye believes in you and your journey to Enloe every day!