Shawn Truby, a medical student in her third semester of attendance, makes strides each day to make her classes on time. There have been many obstacles for her to

Hurdle along the way. Believe it or not, one of the major road blocks she as a student has witnessed in her journey toward a degree has been road rage. “Traffic becomes very chaotic between 8 a.m.- 12 p.m.” Truby explains. “People are speeding and driving very carelessly, especially in the morning.”

After that, the campus calms down a bit, then at 5 p.m. It is quickened with a slew new students scurrying to attend their evening classes. “I have to come to school an hour early just to find a decent parking space near my classes. I don’t want to park near the “strawberry field.” Truby comments.

The strawberry field is a lot at the far end of campus near Old Falcon Way. It always seems like the last resort. People do some pretty radical things in an effort to avoid parking there.

“I’ve seen people cut in front of people and blatantly steal parking spaces that people have been waiting for – they just zoom in like no one was there! I’ve even seen parking lot confrontations!”

On top of that we have those pesky cell phone bandits to worry about!You know, the ones who pay more attention to their phone call than they do to the road. These relapses in care can really cause serious harm to an otherwise healthy campus.

We can say that it would be nice if everyone obeyed traffic laws and observed the speed limit, but half the time everyone is either rushing to class or rushing to find that “perfect” parking space. Yet, what happens when that rushing and that speeding translates into frustration and anger and we begin to make drastic moves and drastic measures to secure a good parking spot? What happens if in doing so we cause injury?

If in coming to school it is our purpose to better ourselves we must truly consider the consequences of our behavior, whether it be on the road or off the road, on campus or off campus. We must be committed to action and beware of reactions which may cause conflict. When thinking of that short cut, consider the possible set back it may cause.