Written by Mia Herz

A new year of juniors brings in new feelings of excitement, responsibility, and ownership, leading to transformations in the beloved junior lounge. Although at Rye Country Day School there is no technical lounge, for years juniors have often gravitated towards the garden level space. The class of 2025 has found a home on the first floor and they are certainly taking advantage of the space. With brand new furniture, the lounge has comfortable couches, convenient high top tables, and a myriad of useful charging stations. The juniors have even taken it upon themselves to buy a pool table that converts into a foosball table to use during free time throughout the day. Often students can hear celebratory cheers, only meaning one thing– after a heated and tension-riddled game, the underdog team has finally won their first game of foosball. Juniors are living their best lives in the new “decked out” lounge, and it has even stirred the pot with a few jealous Seniors.

Should seniority play a role in who occupies the better lounge? The so-called junior lounge was not always “better.” 2023 simply happened to be the year when the old furniture was replaced, and the class of 2025 brought it upon themselves to buy their own pool/foosball table. The seniors have made attempts to make their space the best on campus with posters, decorations, and games. But some still argue for a lounge swap as one anonymous student said that “seniors are just jealous we have a better lounge, there were rumors that seniors were going to stay in the junior lounge, but I’m glad that’s over.”

As lowerclassmen, freshman and sophomores do not have the privilege of having a designated space for their grade to use, so they tend to occupy the 2nd and 3rd floor alcoves, and the library. More than often these spaces are not big enough for their grade and they have to resort to sitting on the hallway floors. According to survey results from the RCDS students body, 85% of students wished there was a designated area for freshman and sophomore students to occupy. An anonymous student interviewed said they “desperately wished there was a place for me to go. I hated sitting on the floor-it was so uncomfortable.” Almost 50% of lowerclassmen utilize the library to socialize and connect with their grade, but during Z2, this quiet study space becomes loud and unproductive. Students who are trying to study have various distractions and it is a lose-lose situation because it is extremely difficult for students to talk with their friends and other students to concentrate on their work. While students are aware that the student body is expanding each year, they are suffering because RCDS is simply too small to hold the current capacity of students. RCDS has tried adding more tables and chairs, but it is not enough and 64% of students have had to sit on their floor at least once in their RCDS career. Among the student body, mice are infamous for scurrying through the hallways, finding themselves a home in classrooms and offices, and leaving tufts of hair on the carpets. Now, it is no easy decision, but would you rather be amidst the controversy among the juniors and seniors and their lounges, or share a comfortable seat on the floor with the mice?