It has been 13 years. Thirteen long years of first-day-of-school jitters, new backpacks, first crushes, homework, dances, sports — the list goes on and on. All these events lead up to pinnacle of our schooling experience: high school graduation.

Many students spend countless hours daydreaming about the day they will walk across the stage to get their diploma. They look forward to a grand event in honor of them and their classmates celebrating the achievement of finishing their “four-year sentence.”

Since the beginning of Perry’s history, graduation has been held at John Wrenn Stadium. This is not just a stadium though. It is a place where Perry’s school spirit lives on, from cheering in the student section, to playing on the field, and even a few spirit assemblies.

Does it not seem fitting that a place that has been the setting for so much memory and feeling during high school, be the place of closure for a senior’s final high school experience?

Principal Dan Serrano commented that he has “never been at a graduation that is not on campus.” This is home. We should not treat graduation as an “away-team-experience.” We have the home court advantage at John Wrenn. This is our turf.

Some argue that there is just no room at Perry for graduation. Our parking lot is certainly too small, and ole John Wrenn is bursting at the seams as it is. Let us not forget that we live in Arizona, so yes, it is going to be warm on the night of graduation.

While our parking lot is decidedly too small, we do have options. Both the Gilbert Soccer Complex on Greenfield Road and Weinberg Elementary have offered their parking lots for the night of graduation so that there are more options to park.

The next best option is the ASU stadium, a far more accommodating option, but with a few catches. Although the price point for graduation is almost the same wherever graduation is held, that is no reason to jump the gun and make a break for Sun Devil Stadium.

“ASU will not do more than two graduations in a day,” commented Serrano. “As soon as the first one is over, they make everyone leave. Here, you can hang out [afterwards] for an hour, so there’s pros and cons.”

Other schools in the district, such as Hamilton and Basha, hold their graduation ceremonies at ASU, but are forced to leave quickly and quietly in order to prepare for the next schools coming in.

To combat the heat, as well as the “space complaints,” Principal Serrano has a solution. “We have live streaming in the gym and the auditorium because some people don’t like the heat.”

Who wants to spend graduation at a school where the students have no emotional connection, and where the social aspect of graduation is completely eliminated? That is not the way for seniors, and their families and friends to end the biggests parts of our lives thus far.

John Wrenn is home. John Wrenn is family. John Wrenn is Perry High School.

With the increase of size of the student population that is only growing and growing, the environment at graduation is becoming a problem. From being squished between strangers due to limited seats, to struggling to find a place to park cars to even having longer ceremonies. Even though we cannot fix the latter issue, the former can be. The sacrifice though would have to be a new location, one that the school needs to undertake.

The problems have become horrendous, one problem facing graduation at Perry is the parking situation. Imagine the dreadful experience that is trying to leave the school parking lot. Take this experience, then multiple the pain by 2016.

Another issue is the seating. The graduations are held at John Wrenn Stadium every year. This was first decided when the school was built back in 2008, when Perry still had generally small graduating classes. The stadium is built to hold 6,000 at graduation with the additional bleachers and the 1,300 foldable seats brought in. The other option is the auditorium, for those who do not want to bare the sun’s rays. The auditorium holds up to 550 people. As this year’s Class of 2016 has 701 students, to be able to have their families and everyone else that wants to go to see their graduation, something about it needs to change.

There are answers, however these answers would require Perry to change its location altogether. A possibility that many high schools across the valley do is have their graduation hosted at  Arizona State University. According to Principal Dan Serrano, “ ASU hosts two graduations in a day all throughout the given time” The downside to this is the high demand. Schools wanting to use ASU as a possible graduation venue requires more planning time to figure out when they can have it there. However, this small downside would still be a better situation than using John Wrenn.

Despite this, it would still be a better solution than keeping it at John Wrenn. The bigger location for graduation prevents the size of the graduating class to be a problem.  Also the air conditioned location provides a better environment so families do not have to embrace the heat to watch these special times. With the cool A.C., families or the graduation class don’t have to worry about the heat to be an issue.

Things have to change with graduation, and a new location seems like the best solution. Whether we like it or not, we have to say goodbye to John Wrenn Stadium eventually if the class sizes continue to increase. Nevertheless, the current issues with the John Wrenn Stadium only promote other ideas like hosting it at ASU to become an option.