By Rachel O’Neil and Isabella Suarez

The bell finally rings, and the kids are excited to fill their empty stomachs…

You get your lunch and sit at your table, but as you look around, you end up seeing: 

• That one person who talks with their mouth full – Mr./Ms. Look-what-I’m-eating, 
• The hungry one asking for everyone else’s food – Mr./Ms. I’ll-take-some-of-that, 
• The one whose food is sloshing around, noisily, in their chompers – Mr./Ms. Noisy-eater, 
• The one who tries to be funny by starting to throw their food at others – Mr./Ms. #foodfight, 
• And the one that is such a picky eater that they complain about the food they get – Mr./Ms. I’m-a-faddish-eater. 

I love to look around and see the mushed-up, wet food in someone’s mouth. You turn your head every which way no matter where you are: at a nice restaurant, at someone’s house, or just walking the streets. There will always be one person who just shows the world what they eat.

The best part about them is when they decide to start talking. The food that was initially in their mouths starts to fly onto the table. Now, you have to worry that none of the flying substances gets into your food.

Then, as you watch, their food exits their mouth and somehow ends up landing on your freshly opened lunch. You now have a big decision to make: either to eat your food because you haven’t had anything since this morning or to just suck it up and go hungry until you get home.

But if you decide to go hungry and you play a sport after school, you know you’re going to feel the empty stomach that you had a chance to fill – #hungry4theday.

Then, there is that one person who never seems to be filled up—their stomach is a black hole. Mr./Ms. My-stomach-has-no bottom. With every blink of an eye, it almost seems as if your food starts to disappear. Looking around the table, you can see that they are stuffing their faces with the food they stole.

But lo and behold, they have already had three other people’s lunches… and asked five other people to buy them another lunch, including the one that never eats.

I mean, there is no better feeling than going to the last class or classes of the day with a barely filled stomach.

Of course, this next person doesn’t show the world what they’re eating but instead will let the world know by sound.

Yes, it might not be as bad as it sounds, but still, you can hear the soggy food moving in between each tooth and getting ground up.

It certainly is the most pleasant thing you can listen to all day.

Personally, a favorite of mine is when people decide to be funny and start throwing food around the table – #FOODFIGHT! – the squashed bananas, the red dye in the food you know won’t come out, and even the food that is too crumbled up to get all of it out.

Right before your last class or classes, you’re digging through your hair, asking people for stain remover, or just getting yelled at because there is food flying.

Last but certainly not least you have the picky eaters…

Mr/Ms. “Ew, that’s gross”

You know the ones that say they like all possible food there is, AND YET, when you offer them ANYTHING, they either look at you with disgust or just say no.

I mean I guess you could say they aren’t the worst of them because they don’t make noise when eating, or show their mushed-up food.

But still, you know for a fact that they are the judgiest people at the lunch table…

Watching as you take one bite after another, making faces, or just flat out making a comment about “how gross your food is”.

Unfortunately, it is only Monday, and you know as you’re walking back to your class that you will have to go through this same cycle for the rest of the week.