School Lunch!

Today I felt as though I had miraculously traveled back in time over 20 years when I partook in school lunch at the high school I’m teaching at this semester.  As I walked into the cafeteria, I realized that nothing short of chaos was unfolding around me.  To my right, boisterous laughter from an unseen source echoed through across the cafeteria.  Students moved about the cafeteria talking with friends, sending text messages, and enjoying lunch.  I got into line with other students and watched as the lunch lady carefully assembled styrofoam plates of food.  To my right, a sign revealed today’s options: pizza or chicken drumstick and roll.  To my left, a young man slowly pushed a wheeled garbage bin that lumbered through the cafeteria like a Jawa sandcrawler on the surface of the desert planet of Tattooine.

I chose the pizza.  It was covered with pepperoni and the crust was thin and crispy.  Broccoli and a small salad were my sides of choice, which were carefully balanced on my plate.  At the end of the line was a basket full of individual tubs of ranch dressing sealed with foil.  I grabbed one and was getting excited to dig in.

“Do you want to pick something else?” asked the woman working the cash register.  “You get two fruits and two vegetables.”  I thanked the woman for her advice and added an orange and baby carrots, both neatly wrapped in plastic bags.

As I enjoyed my lunch, I realized that little had changed about school lunches from the time I ate them in the early 1990s.  Absent were the syrupy cups of fruit which had an expiration date in the next decade and in their place were a lot more fresh fruits and vegetables.  Even the broccoli tasted fresh hadn’t been cooked to the point that every last mineral had been extracted from the green crowns.

Perhaps it wasn’t the food, but the memories that my lunch evoked that I found so pleasant.  For a brief moment in time I was a high school student again, concerned with little more than when my homework was due and what I had planned for the weekend.  I reflected on a time when work, bills, and responsibilities were something only adults had to worry about.  I finished the last of my lunch with a nostalgic grin on my face and took the final sip of my 6oz box of strawberry milk.

As I finish writing this post, I wish to offer my readers a few quick words of advice.  Young readers, never forget to savor school lunch: they disappear far too quickly from our daily routines.  Adult readers: never let the challenges and hardships of life rob you of your memories of high school lunch when the food was acceptable, responsibilities were few, and all dreams are possible to she or he who never gives up on them.