As someone who has torn both ACLs and a meniscus and sprained both ankles throughout my high school soccer career, I have used the elevator many times. And as an athlete, I always have to visit the trainer, who is located by the locker rooms and the weight room.

At this moment in time, I am still on crutches. And there is no elevator that leads to the trainer. So I have to painstakingly go down the stairs to the trainer one wobbly step at a time, cursing whoever built the school, just to do my physical therapy exercises and get some ice for my knee.

Not only do I wish there was an elevator to that area of the school for my own selfish reasons, I wish it for others as well. What if a disabled kid wanted to lift weights? There’s no way for them to get there.

That athletic area of the school is infamous for being difficult to get to. The dungeon that is the math and engineering classrooms, located past counseling, goes right up next to the athletic area, but there’s a wall in between the two. Someone who is coming from weights or gym has to walk all the way across the school, down, and then all the way back across to math teacher Jody Conley’s class.

This could all be solved in a simple, effective way: knocking down the wall in between the two departments. We’ve already been renovating the school anyways; this is one way to make the school less archaic and more accessible.

It will be easier for people to access both the engineering area and the athletic area if there are two entry points. It will cut down the amount of time it takes to get somewhere, especially if you’re changing after gym and trying to dry off your sweat and then you have to run across the school and then back across the school just to get to math class, sweaty again, before the bell rings. It’s counterintuitive. If we knocked down that wall, we wouldn’t have to build an elevator shaft either.

If we’re renovating the school, I feel like this should be a priority. There are so many advantages. And I just want to be able to get down to the trainer without being in danger of falling down the stairs.