By Noah Kinnisten, Sports Editor
Being a broke high school student is already difficult enough. Paying for food and gas by yourself all while being a full-time student with little to no forms of income only makes that more of a struggle.
Nowadays, things are only getting more punishing for scholars’ penniless living as global gas prices rise and will only continue to be less predictable as we go along.
As the prices have risen close to or even more than one dollar on the Outer Banks, students have begun to get fed up, as it has added even more hassle to the already stressful high school student life.
“Prior to these prices, I would only have to spend $30 on gas, which is something I really loved about my car,” senior Hannah Montgomery said. “But now I wait until the absolute end of my tank to fill up in hopes that the prices will drop even a little.”
Many students overlook the potential consequences of hitting E to procrastinate against the inevitable drop in their savings accounts. Senior Dominic Marino is another student attempting to modulate spending at the pumps little by little.
“I’ve been holding off on getting gas for as long as possible every single time,” Marino said.
Although all students who can drive use gas for the places they have to go, Marino in particular is forced to travel 16 miles every day just to go to school, as he lives almost in Corolla.
“It’s annoying because I live like 40 minutes from the school, so it takes up a decent amount of gas going there and back,” Marino said.
Others are sacrificing some little things they enjoy doing just to save for the extra money they have to use up at the gas station.
“I’m driving much less so I can spend less money on gas all of the time,” senior Lane Halfin said. “I don’t go for chill late-night cruises anymore like I would before. I also have been going out to eat less, which sucks, but it had to be done.”
Added Montgomery: “I’ve had to cut down on the amount of shopping I do, so that’s been hard.”
Some students without alternative income sources have had to find new ways to acclimate to this new climate – even if it comes to asking for help from others.
“I get to use my mom’s Shell gas card every time I get gas,” Halfin said. “It only saves about 10 cents a gallon, but anything helps at this point.”
A few people are attempting to begin some sort of revolution to drop the gas prices even a little bit to make it easier on everyone’s life, even if it’s just a shot in the dark.
“I saw on someone’s Snapchat story that no one was supposed to pump gas on April 15 as a protest,” Marino said. “I guess they did it a long time ago and it dropped the prices by like 30 cents.”
No matter the background or person, high school students everywhere agree that this has been a very difficult time.
“It’s especially hard on everyone right now, because not many people get the chance to work because of school, so I really hope everyone is doing well,” Montgomery said.
Senior Noah Kinnisten can be reached at 22kinnistenno93@daretolearn.org.
