When Rowan Farrell enters Wilsonville High School, he immediately feels nervous. He can sense the stairs from anywhere in the building. The worst part is… his first period is upstairs. Once he gets within a 30-foot radius of the steps, his heart starts pounding. Everything around him shifts into a blur. When his foot touches the first step, he’s already out of breath. Once he makes it halfway up, he goes into cardiac arrest.

When I brought up the subject with him, he was already getting sweaty. “I hate these god-forsaken stairs because they make me so anxious for no reason,” Farrell says. When I asked him why they were so hard for him, he could not even speak. “I feel like these stairs are useless, and instead of them, we should put flying rocketships for everyone to ride when they don’t want to take the stairs.” I could have not agreed with him more. Students here at Wilsonville High School dread the thought of those stairs. Everyone is afraid to face the alarming 26-step staircase at every corner of the school.

Rowan Farrell says “But with a lot of Redbull, and the help of the side rails, everyone can do it if they put their mind to it!”