From homecoming to prom, pep rallies to football games, traditions shape the high school experience. SHS adds one unique tradition to this list: painting senior student parking spots. In December 2024, two of the current Fashion for the Cure (FFTC) co-chairs Ophelia Sidmore, 12, and Suhani Prakash, 12, proposed the idea of painting parking spots to the dean of students. This year, their plan became reality. During schedule pickup, FFTC approved individual designs and the painting could begin!
The Leaf rounded up four examples of these spots from around the senior lot and talked to their creators about inspiration, meaning, and future tips.
The senior spots reflect many of their personalities. Many students based their spots on their favorite things. Andrea Bell, 12, for example, decided to paint the quote “Pleasure Over Matter.” Bell said this quote was special to her because “to [her], it means prioritizing things that bring pleasure like personal connections and activities [she enjoys] over the materialistic things that do not matter in the long run.” For more details, Bell incorporated some of her personal favorite items. The black stars painted around the quote are similar to the stars at the top of pages in the Harry Potter books, and the lilies were a unique way to include her favorite flower. “I thought they were a simple but special way to incorporate that into my spot,” Bell said.
Another great spot was designed by Elizabeth Johnson, 12, who chose to include her favorite animals in her design. “My inspiration was basically I love the ocean,” Johnson said, “and sharks and octopuses are my favorite animals, and I like the colors blue and pink.”
One particularly interesting spot was designed by Alissa Schneider, 12. She painted blue lines to represent the water and a sun at the top because “I really like being outside and I love the beach.” Her blue lines were a fun way to represent water. “Well, I was also slightly on a time crunch,” Schneider said. “I only had like a day or two to paint it right before school, and so I started going and it was just like, ‘oh well, this is simple but hopefully it’ll look good.’”
Other student’s designs were based on their hobbies and sports. Lila Gwyn, 12, painted Snoopy and the Flying Ace falling below an airplane holding parachutes with the signature black and white soccer pattern. “I also wanted to do something soccer related because I play soccer so that’s why I made some of the parachutes to look like a soccer ball,” Gwyn said. The quote at the top of Gwyn’s spot reads “4 years in the Hangar, now it’s time to fly.” She explained, “it goes along with the whole Flying Ace idea but also ties into the Aviators thing. I’ve been at Sycamore all my life so I thought it would be cool to kind of incorporate something related to Sycamore.”
The new tradition of painting parking spots will hopefully live on for many years to come at SHS. Future seniors will be encouraged to participate in the painting of spots and contribute to their community, and current seniors have tips to make the process go smoothly.
In terms of buying paint, Gwyn advised, “don’t only buy quarts of paint because it’ll take a lot more than just a few quarts.” Also, Bell said, “My advice to next year’s seniors is to not wait until the last minute to buy paint, Sherwin Williams runs out quickly!” And if you think that you have enough paint, you may be wrong. Johnson pointed out “painting the base coat definitely took more paint than I thought it would, so get more paint than you think you need.” If you end up not buying enough, to make it last longer, Schneider says you can “water it down slightly because it goes onto the pavement a lot better. You might have to do an extra coat but I feel like it’s a lot easier.”
Once the new school year rolls around, hopefully the new parking spots will turn out just as good as the last!
