Kristin Shannon
Staff Writer
knshannon@valdosta.edu

 At one point in time, summer days meant sleeping in, no school, and limited interaction with my high school classmates.  However summer life at VSU is quite the opposite: part-time jobs, long classes, and hundreds of high school students flooding the campus.
 Maymester goes by quickly and quietly for most students.  As the second session of summer begins, many VSU students are met with the excited shrills and excessive singing of GHP students.
 This year, I was somewhat fortunate to have limited interaction with the GHP students due to an online class.  While it was limited, there was a daily interaction.
 For almost two months, I stood at the register of Palms and watched and listened to the VSU intruders.  They were loud and over the top.
 “[The GHP students] were annoying and took up too much space in the dining hall,” Storm Richardson, sophomore biology major, said.
 While they were a mild annoyance to the Palms staff and diners, they were deemed a great aggravation to the students participating in summer school.
 “They were rude and always in the way.  I hope I didn’t act like that when I was in high school,” Laetitia Hall, senior accounting major said.
 Last summer, I shared the many negative thoughts about the GHP students.  I remember my professors often trying to teach over the show tunes being sung in the hallway before finally telling the GHP singers to quiet down.
 The GHP students coming to Valdosta feels like an infestation of an unwanted creature: immature high school students.  They take over the campus, unconcerned with the feelings or space of the original inhabitants.
 To the relief of many, the GHP program has been over since the end of July.  Therefore, the dread of these gifted students invading the campus can be postponed until next June.
 “The GHP kids [are] missed, not by me, but I’m sure someone [misses] them,” Craig Gaddis, sophomore general studies major said.