Spartan Seniors spend their final days of summer painting their personal parking spaces in the senior parking lot.
Senior tradition continues with the parking spots being artfully decorated. Photo by Rachel Uyemura
Each summer TJ Seniors have the opportunity to express themselves on their parking spots in the senior parking lot; this tradition is very important to the seniors and many of them put hours of work into their parking spots.
As one looks through the parking lot, it is apparent that there is a wide variety of artwork on the parking spots, showing Thomas Jefferson’s diversity. One of the most interesting canvases is number 44. The artist is Ty Roder, and in his parking spot the words “Ty”, “Roder”, and “Soccer” are circled to mimic how a word search looks when circling the words. “I wanted to do something creative and original,” said Ty.
This tradition is very popular within TJ. As soon as summer began the majority of the parking spots were already reserved. By the week of registration all of the senior spots were chosen, and the seniors who didn’t claim one were out of luck. A few seniors bought “un-reserved” parking spots and painted them. In total there were 60 available parking spots for the class of 2013 to reserve.
The tradition of painting parking spots, outside of TJ, is not very common. Thomas Jefferson is one of the only Denver Public Schools Schools that allows its seniors to partake in activities like this. This Thomas Jefferson custom is among several other traditions, like the Senior Sleep-Out, that make Thomas Jefferson high school a unique place for a student to spend his/her high school career.
“Painting a parking spot is a very important part of my high school experience,” Corey Hernandez said about this Thomas Jefferson tradition. “The process of painting my parking spot over the last few days of summer was a lot of fun, and having this spot makes me feel like I am a part of my high school,” said Hernandez. Many seniors spent a few days before school even started to paint their parking spots in the senior parking lot. It took several days and nights for many of the Seniors to get their parking spots to look exactly how they wanted them to look. “It was a long three day process to get my spot to look how I wanted it to,” said Hernandez.
In the senior parking lot there are several spaces that catch one’s eye. Starting with spot number 14, painted by artist Corey Hernandez. He put the face of Perry the Platypus in the center of his spot. The background color of the spot is turquoise.
Spot number 40, was painted by Geneva Gaines, which consists of an anchor with a banner going horizontally across it saying, “I’ll be your anchor,” with a light blue background that makes the main subject of the spot stick out.
Last but not least is the stand-out spot of Sadye Hazan. Her spot has all four Teenage Ninja Turtles in each corner of the spot, and on the top her name stretches from side to side, all of which lie on a white background.
According to Principal Sandra Just, “It allows seniors to leave their mark on TJ and shows the increase of maturity that people gain over their four years at TJ.” The painting of the senior spots will be an ongoing tradition at TJ for many years to come, as both the administration and the students feel it improves the environment at Thomas Jefferson High School.
