If the hallways of Reagan could speak, they could tell you about many secrets of the students and staff who walk them. The halls are where students can hang out before school and study for tests and where a student has five minutes in between classes to celebrate the end of one class and dread the beginning of another. While the halls may seem like more of an escape zone from class, they also have hazards associated with them.

The most prominent hazard in Reagan hallways is a place everyone has to face during class change: the mosh pit. This is where everyone is crossing paths trying to get to another hall and the best choice would be to avoid it altogether.

If there is no other way to go than the mosh pit, it is best to stay as close as you can to the person ahead of you and to stop for no one. Also, try not to fall– there have been countless stories of people, mostly as incoming freshmen, who fell in the mosh pit and couldn’t get up.

Slow walkers can seem more of an annoyance than a hazard. The worst is being trapped in a slow-walkers bubble where you can’t pass anyone because they are all walking collectively slowly. Many times I have thrown away my trash at lunch and then been caught in one of these bubbles, resulting in a lonely walk back to class as I watch friends walk freely in front of the bubble.

It can become frustrating at times walking behind people who are at a slower pace, and often it is tempting to yell out at them to pick up the pace. Slow and fast walking lanes at Reagan seem needed at times.

While slow walkers are annoying, there are also those who don’t have any pace at all. Standing in the hallway causes problems for many. Noticeably, these are mainly the couples of the school. It would be nice if they could move off into one of the many “couple locker” locations, the most famous in my opinion being on the upstairs 300 hall.

At Reagan, there are two labeled stairways: one specified for walking up and the other specified for walking down. These aren’t just labeled for no reason. It creates more of an order during class changes so that the whole staircase can be used for walking in one direction.

It becomes frustrating when a person decides that the signs don’t matter and goes against the flow of traffic. There are six other staircases this person could’ve used, and they chose to use the wrong one.

The hallways aren’t always a bad place. They are always decorated with club posters and during homecoming week, transformed from the regular cream and white to wild splashes of color.

My favorite aspect of the halls are the people that pass during the same route between classes. After a couple of weeks, it is easy to recognize who these people are.

Usually they are nameless strangers, but if shown a picture, I could recognize at least 10 people as  “the guy/girl I see every day walking from first to second period.”

The halls are where many interesting stories are told and things take place. A lot of memories have taken place just in these halls, but it’s important to recognize any hazards that may arise and steer oneself away from becoming one.