Texans take pride in their state symbols: the armadillo, the yellow rose, the state flag, bluebonnets, Blue Bell, Dr. Pepper, and of course Whataburger. In a town where orange and white paint usually doesn’t gain a lot of support, senior Ross McGregor used the two colors to create a masterpiece every Texan can support. For the entirety of the 2016-2017 school year, Ross will park in his reserved space at school, marked by the familiar stripes of the Whataburger order tents.

“I love Whataburger,” Ross said. “My dad and his best friend like to go on their midnight Whataburger runs from time-to-time and he actually sent the idea [for the parking spot] to my dad through text message and I loved it.”

Whataburger also loved the parking spot, recognizing Ross’s dedication to the fast food restaurant by posting a picture of it on both their Twitter and Facebook accounts.

“We sent pictures to Whataburger as a joke not expecting to get noticed at all,” Ross said. “I thought it was really cool how it all unfolded on their social media.”

With Whataburger’s Facebook post garnering 2.3 thousand likes and their Twitter post earning 2.2 thousand retweets and 6.1 thousand likes, Ross’s week of hard work paid off and has been appreciated by Whataburger lovers across the state.

“Cutting out all the stencils, the wood for the straight lines, painting, and drying took about a week to complete,” Ross said. “I really like the way it turned out.”

Other seniors also enjoyed being able to express themselves in a creative manner by personalizing their parking spots.

“Being able to paint your own parking spot as a senior is a fantastic privilege,” senior Max McMann said. “It shows that we’ve come a long way and we’re ready to take the next step. I think for the seniors next year they will learn from what we painted and it will be sad to watch them paint over ours.”

Max has enjoyed seeing his classmates spots as they have each shown creativity and individuality.

“Everyone did a fantastic job with their parking spots,” Max said. “They took their time and put hard work into them and made them look perfect. I had no clue that Ross’s parking spot was going to get the attention that it did, but it brought a little attention to Bryan High on [social media].”

Each student’s identity is tied to their parking spot as many of them drew from their interests and things that were important to them when creating their design.

“My parking spot is a Texas flag with saw ‘em off words on it, and a memory of John Hicks, a student that passed away last year,” Max said. “I’m a Texan which is obvious and I’m also a big Aggie fan so I had to do something to combine the two. I also wanted to incorporate something about John.”

With no overhead cost to the project graduation committee, the parking spot fundraiser provides a beneficial opportunity to raise money for the end-of-year celebration.

“The parking spots are a fun and profitable fundraiser,” project graduation co-chair Rondi Reynolds said. “This year we started getting the word out during the summer which allowed time for seniors to be creative and paint their spot.”

The committee has also been pleased with how the spots have turned out with student’s showing their unique interests through the art work.

“This year the kids didn’t just stick with doing a spot regarding their activities at school, they put some thought into it,” Reynolds said. “I’ve gotten a lot of compliments regarding how much people are enjoying the parking spots and how creative these kids are.”