Back when I was in High School, I took an english class on the second floor.
I sat in the southwest corner facing the windows.
I remember the sign in the small window above the door that read: “ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE.” Our teacher was an old, angry man. Each afternoon, our main school building, having been constructed in 1920 as well as it never received any sort of renovation of any kind since then. It was an attractive historic building with no cooling systems nor ventilation devices throughout. Everyone would be overheated by lunchtime since the lunchroom air quality was hot and stuffy. We’d prop the doors open with folding chairs as well as the mosquitoes would come and go. After lunch is when I had history class, where it was even hotter and muggy, without a cooling system. There were furnaces for heat though. They were oil heated radiators that my history teacher threatened to switch on if we didn’t ace a test. It was terrible. My only saving grace was that after that class, every afternoon I went to my math class in a newer building with air conditioning on the other side of the building. It was a longer walk, especially on the hot and muggy days, but I didn’t care. The cool, refreshing, life affirming coolness in the classroom consistently made everyone cheerful. My math teacher was cheerful too, because she could stay cool and comfortable while teaching the most complex of subject material. One time, I heard a rumor that Mr. Ridhell had chosen the stuffiest room in the school in order to torcher his students. I do not believe anyone ever mustered the bravery to ask him.