As I trudge up the stairs, burrito and Clif Bar in hand, I arrive at the platform of the stairwell in the back of the cafeteria that serves as the midpoint between the 2nd and 3rd floor. Upon my summiting of the staircase, I catch a horrendous sight: two students canoodling, slumped on the ground, arms holding each other in a warm embrace. I nearly vomit in my mouth, struggling to repress my gastric impulse to display my disgust. Students should save their public displays of affections—PDA—for private venues instead of showcasing their love for all their peers and teachers to see.

Compared to my previous years at New Trier, though they were limited due to the pandemic, I’ve never witnessed as much PDA as I’ve witnessed in this semester. And I am just so confused as to why there is such a stark increase in the PDA between couples. Maybe this year I’m just roaming all the hot spots for couples, trying to escape the turmoil of school for an intimate respite with their significant other. But, then again, why do students in an academic environment feel the need to caress their partner oh so tenderly? Imagine if your teacher was one of the passersby and saw that extremely personal act. Wouldn’t you be crippled by that embarrassment because I can surely say I would.

Sure, the idea of hand holding, strutting down the hallways with your partner, and even kissing in front of all your friends and teachers was always an image present in the classic teenage high school TV shows and movies. Yet, from my experience thus far, I haven’t seen the PDA to the extent that I’ve seen this year: students proudly and unapologetically embracing their partner with displays of affection.

It makes me ill. Absolutely, violently, overwhelmingly ill. Just because PDA is displayed in our beloved media platforms and outlets doesn’t give people the right to engage with it at New Trier. I sort of thought certain standards and practices at New Trier were unspoken rules of etiquette, one of which includes not treating the school’s hallways like your couch or your bedroom.

Frankly, I don’t exactly care for PDA in any public setting—the streets of Chicago, restaurants, beaches, libraries. Hand-holding I can stand but anything beyond that is intolerable: no, I don’t want to see you “Lady and the Tramp” it with your girlfriend and no, there is no need to loudly French your boyfriend at an intersection while a swarm of people wait for the red hand to turn to a white pedestrian.

While the majority of Trevians involved with a significant other have done a superb job of limiting their public interactions to casual conversations walking side-by-side in the hall, the few outliers are enough of a reason to bring attention to this terrible issue that brings me, and I’m assuming others, so much discomfort.

Maybe I’m being crazy, or maybe schools are completely reasonable in instilling dress codes. Maybe this is lunacy, or maybe creating a supervised, organized hallway system of lines and separation between peers would only reap great benefits and protect from the horrendous sight of pubescent teenagers displaying their affection for all to see. 

Think, Trevians. Do you really want an authoritarian regime presiding over your every move? Keep up all this disgusting, despicable PDA and who knows the lengths the school will go to. I’m not saying the administration should take these actions, but given the dire issue at hand, the administration maybe should take these actions in order to curb the prevalence of PDA. 

A little word of advice, perhaps a second-semester resolution for us (and by us, I don’t mean me; I mean those freakishly engaging in PDA), let’s save all the caressing, hand-holding, hugging, and, most obviously, kissing for a private setting.