We’ve all seen them, standing out to the sides of the cafeteria bathrooms. A lone collection of five soda (or Powerade)-dispensing vending machines, selflessly working day after day to keep CGHS refreshed. 

Not only that, but they do so as the only such functioning vending machines in the school, aside from a lone pair of snack machines behind the Vandy gym that don’t even work half the time.

However, there’s one more machine here that not everyone may remember, or even know about. 

Downstairs, near the choir and band halls, stands a forgotten, broken vending machine similar to its siblings upstairs, wasting away. It sits empty and broken, but still powered; the lights are on, but nobody’s home.

But this lone machine brings to question one key fact about the upstairs zero-calorie soda family: 

They’re all clustered together.

Each of the upstairs machines dispenses nearly the same thing. Diet Cokes and Coke Zeroes, Sprite Zeroes, and the worst brand of bottled water known to man, Dasani. Sure, a couple of them also carry Powerades, but they’re all nearly the exact same in function and variety.

So why aren’t they more spread out?

I argue that our school has a dire soda logistics problem. Vending machines, as a concept, are meant to provide convenient access to instant, cheap refreshments wherever you may be. And yet, we’ve clustered our machines to one hotspot, while denying beverage access to the rest of our hallways!

This is where our lonely, forgotten friend in the band hall comes in. I argue that we as a school need to spread our vending machine fleet out across the school, especially as we continually expand with new additions such as the SAC and Natatorium. 

Perhaps one could be sent to the English hallway, and one to the junction between the Math and Language halls upstairs. One could go to the basement to join the forgotten machine, serving thirsty science students after long labs devoid of food and drink.

By spreading out the machines, not only would we be able to keep more students constantly refreshed, but it help would break up the massive student conglomerates that form nearby during passing periods, reducing the traffic jams that constantly occur there and lessening the chance for, say, someone having their belongings stolen in the crowds.

Not to mention, convenient soda access could make the machines even more profitable for the school than they already are; you’re more likely to buy a soda if you can hit the closest vending machine right after every class, no?

Sure, sometimes it’s a good idea to consolidate and capitalize on a hotspot.

But it’s important to remember the original purpose of the things in life we often take for granted.

Maybe taking after those we’ve forgotten isn’t such a bad idea after all.