By: Cami Swafford

We are blessed that the Rogers Road Bridge was deemed functionally obsolete in 2014. Finally, we all get to take the long, scenic routes to school, work, and pretty much anywhere else. I don’t know about you, but I love driving for fifteen minutes on backwoods turf to get to a destination only half-a-mile away. Not to mention the glorious mornings in which we get to wake up thirty minutes earlier than usual in order to accommodate such a convenient bridge closure. And don’t even get me started on the fantastic traffic that we now encounter daily.

For us high schoolers, the off-campus trek to nearby restaurants has become even more adventurous with students charging towards their cars and honking their car horns as everyone is racing to get their lunches before time is up. The occasional “It’s Bo time!” filling the air. Thankfully, numerous restaurants that students frequent during lunch have become a nuisance to drive to and have made getting back to school on-time even harder.

Many lunch options have become practically impossible to even consider now much to everyone’s relief. Want to go to Sheetz? Nah, too far. Dairy Depot? Eh, better not. Chick-fil-a? A possibility, but you may cut it close. Besides, why would anyone want to go to their favorite restaurant for lunch when they can hit up only a few select fast food places in close range of the school?

A sizeable amount of upperclassmen are beginning to stay on campus for lunch these days. Heritage senior Mary Smith commented, “I haven’t actually been inside the cafeteria since my sophomore year. I can’t believe how lucky we’ve gotten this year with the bridge closing, and going off campus becoming too risky. Staying on campus has made me realize how comfortable the lunch tables are and how relaxing the noise is. I almost forgot what the commons area even looked like!”

For the adults on their way to work everyday, I envy the longer car rides you get to enjoy. The copious amounts of traffic you have the honor of enduring every morning and evening.

Businesses are now feeling the joyful effects of the bridge finally closing. “Sales are at an all time low right now and it is such a huge relief. The added stress about paying my rent really helps calm me down,” states Wake Forest business owner, Marsha Ray. Apparently, losing business due to inconvenience is every store’s dream come true.

Unfortunately, the bridge will reopen no later than November 8, and these long trips through Wake Forest will cease. Life will become all too easy for us once again. We will no longer feel the joys of having our paychecks slip through our fingers as we spend more and more money on gasoline every week, or the exhilarating rush to get our lunches with friends without being late to class. Or the wondrous mornings in which you leave your house thirty minutes before school starts and still manage to get to class with only two minutes left to spare.  

Oh, how we will miss these days. We must cherish every moment we have with this closed bridge while we still can, for we only have two more months of this bliss. I think I speak for all of us when I say I dread the days when we have a safer bridge with more lanes.