Lunch Ladies

Being a Junior in high school comes with its own string of problems and emotions. School brings out the best and worst in teenagers. You could either feel on top of the world with your grades or how you act, whether it be good grades or bad, good behavior or terrible. At the ripe age of 16, I thought I knew everything, that everyone liked me, and above all, I could do no wrong. I never really thought about consequences, especially when it came to school.

There was always some kind of problem when it came to lunch at my school. Shorter lunches with a ton of kids, long lines and being stuck at the back of the line, and running out of good food. For me, it was all three. I was at the end of the line, and I was getting antsy. I was hungry and I was really looking forward to eating some nice hot lunch. When it was my turn to get my food, they had run out of the hot food. Saying I was upset was an understatement. I cursed under my breath and told the lunch lady that they “needed to make more food.” I got whatever food was left over and told the lady at the register the same thing. I felt powerful and like I had made a change. Oh, how wrong I was.

Later that day, I was in English class when my teacher got a call to send me to the front office. I knew what it was about instantly. The assistant principal grilled me, asking me “why would you speak to them like that”, “how could you be so rude”, she was mad. I explained the situation but as I did I really started to realize that I was in the wrong. I was so ignorant about it, and I felt terrible after the fact. The lunch ladies are nothing but kind and understanding. I didn’t realize how much stuff they have to put up with everyday from other kids, and I just added onto that pile of abuse. She then told me to apologize to the lunch ladies and I was, ironically, given a lunch detention.

I apologized to the lunch ladies, and they were surprisingly understanding. They sat there listening to me, almost teary eyed, explaining everything from start to finish. I couldn’t express how terrible I felt. The lunch ladies, the angels they are, conveyed to me how they felt and explained how wrong I was in this situation no matter how I felt while in the moment. In the end, they understood me, they told me some great ways on how to deal with my anger in the future. They even offered to save me a plate of hot food if I’d ever ask.

The whole experience changed me as a person, for good. I finally started to take a look around at how I acted and how other people acted. I self reflected heavily in the following days, I still couldn’t forgive myself for how I acted. Even to this day I feel ashamed. Seeing how hurt they looked really changed something in me. From that moment until this day, I cannot think of a time where I treated someone with that much disrespect.

“Lunch with Dad. Waiting in the typical LONG lines. But it’s worth the wait, every time.” by colleengreene is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.