What’s the Big Deal About Lunch Tables?

Lunch tables. They may just be the definition of middle school. Although it’s just two words, “lunch table” might as well be “social outcome” or “major problem”. They can be fun places, filled with jokes and fun, but what are you supposed to do when your lunch table isn’t the right fit for you?

This happened to me and four really close friends this week at school. It actually didn’t start as us wanting to switch tables, we just wanted to surprise our friend at another table for a day. Before we knew it, we started looking back to our other friends at the old lunch table and what were we getting? What looked like death glares, and telepathic messages saying “we  don’t want you back, you can stay there.” Sure, maybe that wasn’t the message they were trying to send, but it sure seemed like it. My friends and I decided that we would stay there, there was less to stress about anyway, having a smaller, tighter-knit group of girls.

Through all of this, I’ve realized that I really don’t like lunch tables. Yeah, they’re fun, you sit with your friends, and everyone’s happy. But there’s so much stress built onto them. It’s like can’t girls just sit where they want without the whole school watching? So much attention is drawn to them, it’s unbelievable. When my friends and I switched this week, random kids in the hallway we didn’t even know began walking up and saying, “I heard World War III is happening at your table… what did you do to those girls?” This, of course, made me and my friends really mad. Not only did he have no idea what was going on, but neither did we. We didn’t mean to start “World War III” or whatever people wanted to call it.

I’m still quite unsure about how this lunch table thing is going to work out. We don’t want to sever any ties between our friends at the other table, we still valued their friendship. I hope that’s not the outcome. I don’t want to lose friends over this, and although I have four really great friends that I’ve seemed to rediscover, it doesn’t have to be the end of some pretty great times. I’m still eagerly awaiting what’s to come this next week at school, and hoping that it won’t be anything worse than World War III.