Skyline has two lunches: early and late. Now, on paper, this seems completely reasonable. I mean, Skyline is a big school; there are about 1,500 students here.
So what’s the problem? Well, it was implemented in the way only a large institution could manage: confidently, and wrongly enough to torment half the community.
Late lunch at 11:48 is perfectly magnificent. At almost noon, everyone welcomes a break from the government-issued monotony of classes.
Early lunch, on the other hand, is another story. The first issue – and a rather large one at that – is that it starts at 10:33! Yes, 10:33 a.m.! No one in their right mind would consider that an acceptable lunchtime – it barely qualifies as brunch. No one is remotely hungry at 10:33 a.m., but we are forced to choke something down so we don’t starve throughout the rest of the day.
Force feeding at 10:33 leads to stomachs getting slowly conditioned to grumble in the middle of the morning. Some might say that even though this does sound tremendously inconvenient and annoying, it seems like we can adjust and survive. But what happens when we go out into the real world, where they eat at normal times? As soon as school lets out for the summer, or we skip off for spring break, we will be plagued by mid-morning hunger pangs.
Not only does early lunch mess with our appetites, but it also wages psychological warfare against the still growing minds of teens. It comes after our second period, so after finishing lunch, you still have three periods to go before the final bell rings. We are in high school; no matter what you do, after lunch, the day drags.
Now, if you are one of the Chosen Few with late lunch, you can endure your first two periods, trudge through your third (consoled, of course, by the taunting promise of lunch). And once you are done eating, you simply have to breeze through your last two hours until…it’s over! It makes the day feel manageable, normal, like a day should.
Logically, no matter what lunch you have, the school day is still about 7 hours long. But no one has ever accused high schoolers of being logical – or patient.
0 out of 10 stars
