The Routine

The alarm clock’s unappealing sound blares in their ears, ripping away the summer sunshine, to replace it with harsh florescent lights. The gleaming red and white floors reflect the hopeful faces of students. This is it. It's their final year, new goals are established, and they are motivated to make the results different from last year. The wide hallway floor is polished and prepared for the onslaught of students scurrying to their classes. But day after day the repetitive early mornings and late nights finishing the homework wear the students down. Very similar to the floor that is trampled on everyday by the students. And instead of filling their cars to the brim with students to go grab food during breaks, they sit shivering in Killick and Hogg’s freezing classrooms, doing everything they can to pass the class. As the year continues to pass, the motivation that was alive the first day has slowly disintegrated, and is no longer visible in the now dull floors. Now the only thing getting them through the year is that it will be finished soon. They can go back to late nights of unmentionable adventures, and relaxing on the scorching sand of the beach. But after summer break, there isn’t a high school to go back to for them; the students aren’t in the repetitive cycle anymore, unlike the floor. Come September the floors are being polished again like every year. The routine starts again.