Welcome! For returning students, I’m glad we can all spend another year together at Hoban. Freshmen, go ahead and take a deep breath; by making it to ninth period you’ve already won half the battle. I would know. Three years ago I was exactly where you are now. Worry not; you’ve made a good decision.

I’m not going to explain the name of my column right now. I’ll give a hint, though. It’s the first three words of a quote from a very famous German monk.

Instead, I’ll comment on something that probably affects you more directly— gas prices. It can be very easy to blame the oil companies for the high cost. After all, they are doing very well at the public’s expense. Exxon Mobile made nearly $12 billion last quarter, four times what Wal-Mart made. The oil giant set a world record for profits at a time when some Americans are forced to choose between gas and food. Is this right?

Maybe not, but it may not be the oil companies’ fault. The price of oil is based on many factors, but for the most part it boils down to the concept of supply and demand. Simply put, the more oil the world uses, the more the oil will cost.

This is the point of the debate where some people start to grumble about India and China. It is true that these countries use more oil as they industrialize. However, there is no escaping the fact that 5 percent of the world population (America) uses 25 percent of the world’s crude oil. We are public enemy number one when it comes to the crime of overconsumption.

Everyone has different solutions to decrease our demand. Here are mine: carpooling and driving slower.

Carpooling can be easy for Hoban students. Most of us have friends that live fairly close. You may have to stay later some days, but who knows, you may actually have fun (there’s usually a Frisbee game somewhere).

Driving slower in the mornings requires self-discipline, because it forces us to wake up earlier to be on time. On the brighter side, driving fifty-five and listening to music is a low-stress alternative to weaving in and out of morning traffic at seventy. By simply driving the speed limit, drivers can increase fuel efficiency by 15 percent.

A new school year means changing old habits for many students. Carpooling and driving slower are two resolutions worth considering for this “new year.”

Mornings might be a little easier if we increase the time between crawling out of bed and crawling into our first-period chair. And if we fill that time with a more relaxing (and gas saving) commute, all the better.