Students who live far from school are reminded weekly of the stresses of a late-start Wednesday. Many of those attending Seattle Prep are from a wide region in/surrounding the Seattle area. A lot of the time, the drive to school in the morning for Seattle Prep students is a quick 10-15 minutes, however it can also mean a drive that is traveling from a different county and that lasts over an hour.

Junior Amber Richards lives in Burien, where getting to and from school can range from 30 minutes to an hour and a half car ride. Because Richards lives so far away, she is forced to stay up later for homework because it takes her so long to get back home, resulting in very little sleep. Late starts are constant stressors for Richards because she prays weekly that there aren’t any accidents or collisions that could delay her trip. However, late starts also result in a later alarm to her already early morning: “I have to leave an hour and ten minutes before school, but I still am able to sleep in more than a normal day.”

Dominic Ferro ’19 comes from Snoqualmie, where the commute to Prep is a constant issue in the mornings, taking an average 40 minutes to an hour. He recalls a landslide on I-90 before Issaquah on his way to school, causing the roads to close making him 3 hours late. Ferro described late starts as “awful but great at the same time”, allowing him to sleep in an hour later but adding 30 minutes onto the trip.

Junior Addie Weiss makes the daily trek to school from Mukilteo, leaving her house around 6:20. She has learned over the past three years of being at Prep how to get ready in 10 minutes in order to give herself enough time, while also figuring in morning traffic. Weiss appreciates the extra sleep time on late start Wednesdays, even if it means more cars on the freeway. On the other hand, there are many advantages including “having time to finish homework, get ready, eat, or sleep.”

No matter the distance, students are willing to make these trips on a daily basis if it means coming to another day of school at Prep.