What's for Lunch?

Just to keep you on your toes, I'm posting something that really has nothing to do photography. Perhaps you've gotten used to that around here. Never the less, The Parent Blogger Network is hosting another Blog Blast today in conjunction with School Menu and its parental counterpart Family Everday, two sites that work together with School Food Services Directors to provide and promote healthy eating and physical fitness for kids and their parents. So, of course, the subject of 'the blast' is food.

Unfortunately, they aren't asking for photos of food but have asked us to share our Tales from the Cafeteria. As in, our own stories. Remember waaaay back, when we we used to eat in the school cafeteria? I know, you kind of gotta dust out those cobwebs to recall those days but I have a pretty vivid memory of one particular lunchtime drama.

When I was in 5th grade my family and I moved to a new town. Obviously, I had to meet new friends and try to fit in. It took some time but by the time 6th grade came, I was acquainted with "my crowd" and finally found my place. Wouldn't you know that as things began to get comfy, my parents split up and we moved back to from where we came. The only problem was I couldn't go back to my old school with my old friends so I had to play the whole "new kid" game all over again.

I remember being mistaken for a boy in my first few days at my new school. Not unlike what's going on in today's hair trends, those days both girls and boys wore their hair long and stingy and being a skateboarding tomboy with not even a trace of a curve that could help set the record straight (if you know what I mean), it wasn't too hard to understand the confusion. Those days were excruciating listening to whispers in the hall, "Is it a boy or a girl?" and even as extreme as "I think the new kid is a fox". Yep. It's true. I was the new cute boy in the 6th grade. Ouch.

My gender identity issue got cleared up thanks to the ballsy popular girls who just stormed right up to me at recess and asked me point blank what I was. Mind you, the less popular gang of girls just invited me to play hopscotch without knowing the real truth (I suppose they had a hunch I was a girl when I agreed to play with them). Regardless, I still felt awkward, uneasy and dreadfully insecure.

Months later, still more than a tad unsure of where I fit in or better said, IF I fit in, we were all eating lunch under the lunch shelter (our school's version of a cafeteria) when an argument broke out between a few of the girls of the "in crowd". One of them stood up and peered at the other and sneered, "don't give me dirty looks" and the other stayed seated and mumbled something like "why don't you just shut-up..." and then someone threw some food. And from somewhere in the crowd there echoed a battle cry, "Foooood Fight!"

The next 2 minutes was total chaos with food flying everywhere; hamburger buns, french fries, soggy lettuce and wet pickle slices. Kids were getting hit , walls and windows were getting splattered, and ketchup covered the area now reminiscent of a crime scene. It got broken up rather quickly but it was lunch room anarchy long enough for a slow motion montage from a classic preteen movie. A number of girls were immediately singled out, snatched up and taken directly to the principle's office. I was one of them.

I vividly remember being there in the office with the group of popular girls. And for those moments, awaiting our punishment, I felt like I belonged. There I was with the girls that I was never certain of; the flippant and fickle clique that would be gang up on me one day and throw food at one another the next. In one single lunchtime altercation, I was seen as a fellow bad girl. And the bad girls always get the approving nod from the other bad girls. For a misfit 6th grader, it felt great. I wish it didn't. But it did. It really did. And although I don't recall if I even threw any food, getting busted for being in a food fight was the coolest thing that ever happened to me.

Comments

[Jazzy]

So then what happened? Did you get in trouble? Did you become one of the cool girls?

[mom]

this was tough for a mom to read
about her girl's pre-teen pain...
but once again you proved you have
more courage than most and that food
can be vital to your well being in more ways than one!!
you are the giver and the gift...
xox momee