Q: What do you eat for lunch?
Lunch is one of the best parts of my teaching day. I look forward to my lunch every single day, in ways I never did when I was actually in school.
When I was a high school student, I rarely ate lunch. I’d eat before I got to school, and then I’d go to the lunch room and chat with my friends, do the homework I hadn't done the night before, or play cards. As I got older, I stopped going to the lunchroom entirely, instead spending my lunch period with various teachers on their off periods, helping them with grading or just making small talk.
All I can say about that is that my high school teachers are greater people than I will ever be. Now that I'm a teacher, my lunch period is sacred. One of the awesome things about the school I work in is that all of the high school teachers have the same lunch period. What is not so awesome is that this lunch period is the very last period of the day, meaning that by 2:00 p.m., everyone is starving, cranky, and in need of a break, probably me more than any of the students. At the start of the lunch period, students flee the building in search of food and freedom, and I take a few moments to decompress and eat.
This is my private moment. This meal I look forward to all day. I retrieve the diet soda, cheese sticks, and snacks that I keep in my friend’s fridge in the classroom across the hall from mine. I descend the stairs, my book in one hand, my lunch in the other. I make my way to the teachers lounge, where most of my other teacher friends are also having their lunches. We all take our food out of our lunch carriers. The English teacher has a monogrammed polka dot bag, and the chemistry teacher usually holds her various plastic containers in her hands as she weaves her way through the students. A few people waiting for deliveries from one of the few local places. The guidance counselor comes out of her office with candy or snacks. Usually, someone has run to the supermarket right across the street and picked up something fun to share—a new brand of chip, some pretzels, tortilla chips and salsa, chocolate. Sometimes, if a few of us haven’t packed lunch, we order from the local taco place that leaves all of us smelling like garlic, or we walk to the salad place. The deli and the chain sandwich restaurant, which are the closest places to the school building, know most of us by name, even if we only go there once a month or so.
Usually, I pack my lunch: leftovers from the night before, my roommate's old takeout, or a quick peanut butter and jelly. I throw in fruit, veggie sticks, or some other healthy item that makes me feel better about not eating from 6:30 a.m. until almost mid afternoon. I take out real silverware and a cloth napkin, and we all take a break from our day. If I have something particularly good, it’s extra exciting. Knowing I have a good piece of meatloaf from a few days earlier or delicious pad thai that my roommate didn’t want can help me make it to the end of a bad day.
For me, lunch isn’t just about what I eat. It’s what I do while I’m winding down the end of my day. Sure, the food is good, too, but the company is really what I’m looking for.
Do you look forward to lunch?
Ms. Mahoney is a high school teacher in New York City. When she's not teaching, she reads blogs about people whose lives are nothing like her own.
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