New Distances

On Thursday I told myself "I wonder how it would be to get school lunch and eat in the cafeteria?" I took this upon myself as a challenge, one that would bring me to the depths of our school cafeteria. I began this challenge right after I had finished fourth period, and went to my locker to put my books away. I had to remind myself that I was actually going to eat school food, so i put protein bars in my locker and walked over to the cafeteria.

I stepped in line at the end, and waited my turn like everyone else, blasting my music in my ears. I could not hear what the people around me were saying so I took a headphone out of one ear, and listened to my surroundings. I heard the people in front of me saying words, in a language I did not know. It could have been Mandarin, Cantonese, Mongolian, or Korean I could not tell the difference. It was my turn to type in my I.D. number ***** I punched in and pressed enter. The lunch lady told me there was pizza- cheese or peperoni, Hamburgers- cheese or plain, Chicken sandwiches, sandwiches- ham and cheese or tuna, burritos- vegetarian, beef or chicken, and there are salads- chicken, tuna, or spaghetti sauce. It was too many options for a main meal, but there was more. Gatorade's, cookies, chips, fresh fruit, and shredded lettuce.
All I got was a tuna sandwich, an orange, a bag of carrots, and a Gatorade. What a lunch; that was sarcastic.

I gathered the food and walked into the cafeteria. There was an awkward ambience to the room, as I walked by the tables. Suddenly I spot an open table and I hurry over to it. I jump over a couple backpacks and chairs to get to the far left hand corner of the room. I place my food down on the table grab an orange chair and sit down. One of the guys I know from my current life class came over to my table and sat down. I asked him one thing "what do you do in the cafeteria?" His reply was, "the only thing you can do in a cafeteria without getting caught." He was referring to playing face cards. I began to eat my lunch and he dealed me in. I was eating my tuna sandwich as I got the ace of spades and the ace of hearts. Lucky for me it was Texas Hold'em five card draw. I won the pot which was twelve carrots. The game went on winning some, loosing some, and eating some was all of the fun.

I finished the game with the most carrots and came out the champion of the cafeteria. It was a different experience being inside of the cafeteria, especially how non-diverse it was. When I was eating I noticed I was the only White American in there and that the rest was Asian American. I can now say to some of my asian friends this story and call it My Life as an Asian.