According to We Are Central PA, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the price of crude oil has risen causing gas prices to soar. As of Friday, March 4, those living in  Pennsylvania started paying around $4 per gallon for their vehicles. 

“When I drive, I have to make sure I limit the amount of distance I travel because I’m not capable of dropping loads of money on gas,” junior Chandler Brendel said. “As a teenager who has to maintain school and a job, I don’t have the time to constantly be working. There’s a few nights out of the week I work, but that’s not enough to constantly pay for gas along with supplies for projects, sports equipment and other things. It’s difficult with these prices constantly increasing because it also limits the amount of times I go driving to see my friends, which affects my social life.”

Not only students have experienced difficulties with this new change, but teachers have also experienced difficulties as well. 

“I definitely am more conscious of how much gas we use,” mathematics teacher Christopher Strawmier said. “I have also stepped up my commitment to the gas points game at the grocery store to get as much of a discount as possible.”

Students involved in sports have also experienced some difficulties with these gas prices and have worked their way around these problems. 

“Being involved with sports while these prices are being increased is definitely not easy,” junior Connor Lindsey said. “I juggle a job on top of school and varsity baseball. It’s not easy and since I only work a few days a week, I have to put most of my paycheck towards gas. Traveling back and forth from school, to after school practice, and back home is challenging and takes up a lot of my time. I feel like as this year has progressed, I’ve understood what I can and can’t juggle with everything. My schedule usually consists of going to work on the weekends, driving back home or to any extra practices I may have going on that day, then to school the next day and practice or any games afterwards, it all really eats up a lot of my gas. It’s hard saving for college too considering the fact that I’ll be leaving after my senior year next year, so these gas prices have definitely affected me and some things I’ve had to give up.” 

Some students who participate in other after school activities have faced obstacles working with these new gas prices, and figuring out how to save gas and money.

“My after-school schedule consists of going to orchestra, swimming and track,” junior Gwyneth Fox said. “Orchestra, we mostly practice at school, but that means I still have to drive all the way back to school and home again. That uses a lot of my gas in general. Driving to track every day at Mansion Park also isn’t easy because I have to go even further out of my way, multiple times a day. Eventually, I feel like this just continuously adds up for people who have busy schedules outside of school, and it’s become an obstacle. I’ve talked to some people who I run with also, and they’ve shared their struggles with me about how gas isn’t cheap and it creates problems for them saving in the future. I feel like I have to minimize the amount of time I’m able to go on drives with friends or by myself, which limits my social time.”

Students who don’t drive their own vehicle have also noticed some difficulties with the new gas prices and whoever drives them. 

“I usually get my boyfriend to drive me around because I don’t have my license yet,” Junior Abigail Gensamer said.” We used to take many road trips and go on drives together before all of these gas prices shot up. Now, we have to limit the amount of time we are out driving because we can’t spend a whole lot on gas.  We shortened our trips by a lot to help us save more gas since it is so expensive now.”