The parking at CSI is infamously horrible. Potholes, fighting for spots, constantly ducking the students printing tickets, cars stalking people back to their spots – I could go on. This is a journey that requires mental preparation, probably more then the actual class you're trying to get to. To prepare yourself, here are the five stages of parking at CSI.
Stage One: Hope
It’s about an hour or two before your class starts. You swear to yourself you’re going to leave your house early to get a good parking spot, close to the building you need to go to. You won’t have to walk far and since it’s still pretty early, maybe you won’t have to circle the lot four times before you find a spot. Life is pretty good right now.
Stage Two: Regret
It’s now about ten minutes before your class starts and you’re nowhere near campus. You’re sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, cursing yourself for leaving later than you originally planned. No way you’re going to get a decent parking spot, let alone a spot at all.
Stage Three: Hope (again)
You’re finally on campus with only a few minutes to spare and you decide to check the lot closest to the building your class is in. How bad could it be, right? Somebody has to be walking to their car, or leaving by the time you get there. It’s totally going to work out.
Stage Four: Rage
You turn into the lot and you are just overcome with anger. There’s at least five to six other cars circling the lot with you, meaning you have to fight to the death over whatever spot opens up first. You don’t understand how parking on this campus got so bad and you’re angry the entire time you search for a spot. Occasional cursing and flipping off other drivers is allowed.
Stage Five: Reluctant (and still angry) acceptance
Your class started five minutes ago and you’re still wasting your time playing Ring Around the Rosie. You give up and park in the gravel lot that is inevitably the furthest lot from the building you need to go to. You walk into class, half sweaty and half ashamed that you are now twenty minutes late and see someone else is in your seat.
Repeat this process four to five times a week.