Senior Jenna Woelfel drives out of the school parking lot, already stressed about the schoolwork and responsibilities she must attend to, she doesn’t need another stressor added to her load. That’s when her fuel light goes on. Her car alarms her that she needs to fill up her gas tank if she wants to have the means of living her busy life. She drives past the gas stations, seeing the large signs announcing the high price of $3.11 per gallon. She keeps going, maybe the next gas station will be cheaper. Unfortunately, it isn’t. I can go one more day, she thinks.

As teenagers living busy lives, regular activities like getting to school, work, and going out all require a full tank of gas. However, that seems to be nearly impossible with the unseasonably high gas prices. Sitting at $3 or more, it can be a real hit to the wallet when filling a car up. Woelfel spends upwards of $40 to fill her tank.

“I have been procrastinating on filling up my gas tank because [gas] is so expensive, but that just makes it even more expensive because then I need more gas,” Woelfel said. 

Woelfel’s parents help pay for her gas, but she believes there are better things they should have to spend money on.

“It just sucks because we could be putting that money in other places but we’re not able to,” Woelfel said.

Senior Lauren Schultz finds herself driving up to 300 miles a week, her car holds enough gas to let her go 400 miles on a full tank, meaning she has to fill her tank up every week. 

“[Gas is] really overpriced… sometimes it’s like two-thirds of my paycheck,” Schultz said. “My parents will help me [pay for my gas] sometimes… other times [I] just have to fend for myself and hope that I’m not broke.”

Junior Dylan Bick also finds a good chunk of his paycheck gets reserved for gas.

“About half of [my paycheck] goes towards gas,” Bick said. “It’s kind of aggravating [to have to] spend half of the money I make on gas.”

Bick tries to conserve gas the best he can, but it’s difficult to manage as a student with such a busy schedule.

“Me and my friends try to carpool so we don’t all waste gas,” Bick said. “[But the gas prices] definitely make me not want to drive. I’m always thinking that I’m gonna have to spend money later on [when I have to] drive so much.”

Woelfel has to commute to and from school, is responsible for driving her siblings places, and has after school commitments she has to drive to get to. The increase in gas prices has caused a severe dent in her desire to drive unless it’s necessary.

“I end up staying home or inviting people to my house so I don’t have to [drive],” Woelfel said. “Now that we’re able to go out and do stuff we can’t because gas is so expensive.”