I was shocked when I walked into Saratoga High for the first time in months on Schedule Pick Up day.

No, it wasn’t the larger-than-usual groups of students hovering around the entrance or the frantic parents running around telling them where to go, but rather something most people had just taken for granted before—the paint on the walls. A wall on the outside of the school, a row of lockers near the office, and the art building’s walls had all been repainted.

My school of dull grays and faded blues is now a new shade of beige.

I had a mixed reaction to the new colors. I couldn’t figure out why the administration had suddenly decided to repaint our school. But then, the realization sunk in.

Last year, I was one of the students who had hopped onto the bandwagon and complained that “Saratoga High looks like a jail.” Now, we got what we wanted, correct?

Wrong. I didn’t appreciate how much I liked the white walls until they repainted over it. I much preferred the white to the tan that now sorely stood out from the rest of the unpainted walls. The dreary color brought down the bright atmosphere of the school.

The new paint was supposed to erase the image of Saratoga High looking like a “jail.” It was supposed to bring a new life to our school that wasn’t there.

Despite the color being a fresh coat of paint, it actually gives our school an old and boring look. If this paint treatment persists, our school is going to turn into several dull shades of brown.

So now the students of Saratoga High have to attend school in a beige-walled environment. I guess the cheesy but fitting line, “You never know what you have until it’s gone” applies to the situation here.