For returning students of  Tupelo High School, there was something that was off. The bell had changed to a different sound. In my previous years, I had adjusted to the thundering bell ringing after every class and lunch period. But, this year is was very different.

On the first day of school, I had awakened early and prepared my mind to go through yet another year of high school as a junior. I remember trudging toward “A” building, trying to wake myself up by rubbing my eyes furiously; but that did not help at all.  As I was  regretting my poor decision of staying up all night watching Netflix, I heard a shrilling, high-pitched noise that instantly woke me up.

I noticed that others were looking around in all directions with puzzled faces, and that is when I realized that THS had changed the bell. At first, I thought that this peculiar noise was an emergency siren because of  the similarity;  it also rang three times just like the tornado drill signal.

Each ring sent chills down my spine. This is probably because when I was eight-years-old, I vividly remember the day when my brand new trampoline flew over my house during a tornado. To put it into shorter words, I hate tornadoes.

After realizing that I was going to have to listen to this sound for the rest of the school year, the mentality that I had prepared for school had completely shattered. In my opinion, I think  that the old bell should be brought back because it sounds much better than the confusing one that we have now. I would prefer not to get goosebumps every time I have to change classes.

Even though both bells are extremely loud, I would prefer a bell that is easier to adjust to rather than one that makes me think that a natural disaster may be coming. The old bell sounded casual, like one that you hear in movies; such as Grown Ups when the students were rushing out of the building on the last day of school after desperately waiting for it to ring. I feel like this year’s bell will be reminding me of the movies Into the Storm and 2012 over and over and over again.

Just to show that I am not the only one that thinks the old bell was better than the new one, I took a survey and asked a total of 20 people on their thoughts of the new ear piercing sound and it turns out… I was not alone. At all.