Pennsbury High School holds a student body of roughly 3,600. With such a large large, our school is huge and bound to have an equal number of problems and positives. When we PHS students/graduates wonder about our high school, these are probably some of the thought bubbles we’ve had in our time:
1. “Please don’t give me an alternating building schedule.”
Without shuttle buses, the worst fate you can have is to walk between buildings for each class. We already have gym — no more exercise needed.
2. “Were you born a sloth? Walk faster!”
Whether you walk the path once or three times a day, the slow walkers are absolutely unbearable. You have to watch your steps and try not to step on the person’s shoes. Get a move on!
3. “If they hadn’t changed the high school 10 times, this wouldn’t be a problem.”
If you’ve had family (parents, grandparents, etc.) at PHS before you, you already know that West was once Medill Bair and William Penn at the same time, while East has always been the high school. Then the buildings were separated into ninth and 10th, 11th, and 12th. Now, we have our glorious mashup of all grades, both buildings, and our really annoying path.
4. “What crime did I commit to land in this prison?”
Some not-so-lucky students have class all day in East. While they don’t have to walk, they also forget what sunlight is, thanks to the architect who designed East, who conveniently also designed a prison.
5. “East is bad, but who came up with West’s building plans?”
East may lack windows, but at least the building is a giant square. West, on the other hand, has hallways that branch off each other in the strangest ways. Makes no sense.
6. “I hope it rains so we get shuttle buses.”
If you’re one of the unlucky students walking between each class, you often pray for rain so the school sends shuttle buses.
7. “Better yet, could we please have a snow day for once?”
Every surrounding school gets off or at least has a delay when it snows. Not PHS. We get to brave the black ice and pray we don’t slip and die on our walk to the bus stop. Just another reason to hate Neshaminy …
8. “Someone wrote a book about PHS?”
Yes, there’s a book written about our school. Have we read it? Nope.
9. “If I go down this hallway, down those stairs, I can beat the traffic jam after school.”
You can’t take the usual route outside after the final bell, or it will take you 20 minutes to reach the parking lot, and another hour to escape Hood Boulevard, so you’ve definitely got your alternate route mapped out, and your books in your bag before the bell rings.
10. “Don’t the kids at smoker’s corner realize how obvious they are, standing there?”
Even if smoker’s corner isn’t next to Burger King anymore, anyone driving to school had to wonder why it took so long for the police to finally shoo them away. The smokers didn’t try to hide anything.
11. “Do I want to join prom committee?”
To join prom committee and dedicate your soul to giant murals and papier-mache decorations for the next month or two, or to just wait and appreciate the spectacular sight when the time comes?
12. “I’m not artistic, but yes!”
Yup, joining prom committee. Just give me the tape. Or color-by-number instructions.
13. “When I go to college, my orange and black clothes will not match anything.”
With Sports Nite, gym clothes, and any Pennsbury gear you bought at a football game, your wardrobe is filled with orange and black. The black isn’t as hard to match, but the orange? What do you match that with? Oh yeah — black.
14. “Yes, I am [so-and-so’s] brother/sister/son/daughter.”
PHS is huge, but there’s also a huge chance that your family member, be it an older sibling or one of your parents, went there before you, and you’ll likely have the same teachers they had. You know exactly when your teacher reached your name on the attendance sheet, because the recognition lights in their eyes before they call your name. You just learn to smile and say yes every time.
15. “Wait, Sports Nite involves more than dancing?”
Gym class is so intense when learning Sports Nite choreography that you probably forgot the event includes a bunch of other relays, too. This will probably be the first and only time since elementary school that your gym teachers bring out those finger-crunching scooters.
16. “You’re from Neshaminy? Come at me, bro.”
Does this even need explaining?
17. “Where are you going to college? Wait, let me guess — Penn State? Temple? Maybe West Chester?”
We already go to a big school, so why not go even bigger? Most of your classmates (if not yourself) have probably decided to enroll at some of the larger campuses in the state.
18. “People still take Senior Skip Day seriously?”
There are two kinds of people: those that skip and go to Six Flags, and those that don’t skip because their teachers are 100 percent serious when they say that they will fail any senior who is not in class that day. Who’s going to risk it?
19. “I can’t wait to graduate.”
Well … yeah. No explanation needed.
20. “This yearbook is bigger than my textbooks.”
And we’re probably right. We have over 3,000 people to display, dozens of clubs and events to document, plus we need a whole lot of space to fit the signatures of every classmate we’ve interacted with since freshman year. That monster is the only book people actually want to lug around all day.
21. “Who are you?”
Ah, graduation. Where everyone walks and the names don’t matter. You probably recognize about half the names that get called. Who’s going to know all 800 people in your class?
22. “I love PHS!”
We may complain a lot about our school, but in the end, we are really glad we didn’t go to Neshaminy or Council Rock. We’re just too awesome, and we will always wear orange and black with pride!
Go Falcons!
