For those of you living on campus, your day might start off something like this: you wake up to the sound of your alarm and yet decided to indulge on five more minutes of sleep. Reluctantly, you lift the covers and slip out of bed to face a new day. Your only worries so far consist of whether or not you should walk to class and what flavor jam to put on your toast. You don't have to be concerned with how many parking spaces would be left by the time you leave your room. You get dressed, you have breakfast, you catch just one more episode of your favorite show on Netflix and you might even have time to try out that coffee place you’ve been dying to go to.
Now, for those who live off campus and depend on the parking services provided by USF, the narrative changes quite drastically. Your mornings no longer become a ritual but more of a drill at a military camp. Every minute counts. There is no time for lingering in bed for five more minutes or to simply enjoy a second cup of coffee. No. It’s time to beat the clock and hope that you beat it by at least two minutes. But of course, in your haste you not only forget your shoes but the keys to the car. You get in your car and hope that you have your shoes on this time so that you don't have to turn the car around to go get them.
At this point your only conciliation is not having an exam that day and the only thing tested is your willpower to not turn around and go crawl back into bed. Having arrived at the parking garage, other students are already circling each floor like hungry sharks circling a prey. At that moment you are no longer fellow students but enemies. They antagonize you just as much as you antagonize them. Let the games begin. There is no point in even trying to scout a spot in the first two floors, so you make your way to the top floor. Once up there, things can only go one of two ways: you end up finding a spot 15 minutes after class begins or you're lucky enough to see someone step off the elevator and head for their car and yet have the misfortune of being too slow and getting it stolen.
What this entire narrative boils down to is, aside from paying tuition, books, housing outside of campus and all other supplements, students pay nearly $100 in parking permits per semester in order to participate in their local Hunger Games, as I like to call it. But fear not students, I have accumulated enough experience to provide you with several tips in order to make your parking experience that much more enjoyable.
HOW TO WIN THE HUNGER GAMES:
- There is a small window of time in between classes where students get out and right there is your chance to find a parking spot (that is if the number of students leaving equals the number of students getting to school, which is the never the same).
- If you have a dear friend who is able to the spot for you, that’s your safest bet.
- Now, some make the ultimate sacrifice. If your class is, let’s say at 12:30 p.m., the full proof plan of not only making it to your class on time but having a guaranteed spot is arriving no later than 9:15 a.m. Sure you have wait a couple of hours but what’s that compared to having to fight for a spot later on.
- And of course, you could always pay per hour for a guaranteed spot at any parking lot of your convenience, but that gets expensive after a while. Hello, $1.75 per hour, really?
