Every day at Hanover High, students are free to use the water fountains. I find the fountains we have here to be very clean, unlike many offered in other schools. But one time when I was about to fill up my water bottle, I noticed an (almost) empty chocolate milk bottle left on top. I thought to myself, “that’s disgusting,” as I tossed it into the trash can, located not even 10 feet from the fountain.

About a week later, I noticed a wrapper with crumpled up chocolate chip cookie pieces crushed inside it right on top of the same fountain. I shook my head in annoyance, thinking about the horrific fact that some students at my school don’t even have the consideration to throw away their trash where it belongs. They leave it right on top of something we should all be taking care of for the sake of its purpose, as we are lucky to have these high quality fountains.

One morning, I was minding my own business while going for a bathroom break in the middle of Digital Media class, and noticed something else lying on top of the water fountain — this time, it was two sharp nails most likely used for some kind of woodshop project. I was furious to see that a high schooler would have the ignorance to do something like that, probably thinking it’s funny and would not affect anyone. Someone could seriously get hurt accidentally touching those nails by not noticing them, as they blended in with the color of the fountain pretty well. Many people such as myself are against littering, and those same people are sure smart enough to respect the property they live on, or go to school or work in. Once you think about it, it isn’t that hard to do.

I strongly believe that it is important to recycle and throw away your trash when needed to do so, and also to keep your belongings used for whatever purpose in the appropriate places; tools aren’t to be left out on drinking fountains, HHS. After reading this, hopefully more students will be aware of this problem I encountered, and
I won’t be seeing any crumpled bottles, wrappers or unusual belongings left on the fountains for quite some time. You can always make a difference by putting things in the right place.