In the harrowing adventure that is childhood (and teenager-hood), lunchtime was among the more turbulent experiences. When you were very young, you were probably told where to sit. As you grew older, though, your school usually let you do the choosing. This era of midday autonomy usually coincided with the onset of puberty. Cue social disaster.
The dispersal of hungry teenagers across a school campus could be chaos. Fortunately, most people form groups and find a regular spot in the cafeteria. But not everyone is so lucky. For many, lunchtime was an hour-long ordeal of either retreating to the bathroom or eating utterly alone.
Natalie Hampton, an 11th grader from Sherman Oaks, CA, is seeking to solve the lunch dilemma with an app called Sit With Us. She told NPR, "At my old school, I was completely ostracized by all of my classmates, and so I had to eat lunch alone every day."
Now 16 and thriving at a new school, she designed an app to rescue those in her former position. The app allows "ambassadors" to host open lunches that anyone can join. It's kind of like Tinder for high school lunch and it's meant to protect against the Regina Georges of the world (we've all heard the menacing words, "You can't sit with us," at least once.)
Is Hampton's experience universal? I would say yes. I transferred to a new high school my junior year and found myself in a stairwell most days. Would I have used an app to find a place to belong? Absolutely.
We asked Refinery29 staffers where they sat in high school. Click through to see where we spent lunch hour during our high school days — and why Hampton's app is so, so necessary.
The Bathroom
"I switched high schools sophomore year and, unfortunately, all of the friends I made had a different lunch time than I did. I sat with some girls from my calculus class for a while, but was never able to make the jump from sitting with them to actually being a part of their friend group or conversations. I finished off the last few months of the year eating lunch in a bathroom stall each day before heading to my next class early."
Photo: via Giphy.
The "Other" Cafeteria
"I was a BIG OL' nerd, but I sat with the punks/stoners/outcasts in the way-back corner of the second cafeteria. My high school had two cafeterias with respective lunch lines."
Photo: via Giphy.
An Assigned Table
"In high school, you were assigned a table where there'd be older and younger kids, as well as a teacher. This assignment would be there for a quarter. Every day, two of the kids would be assigned to clean up the table after everyone was done eating. This promoted mixing and talking of kids of different ages and ensured that no one was isolated and ate alone. It also ensured that kids wouldn't make a mess, because then they'd have to clean the mess themselves."
Photo: via Giphy.
The Art Room
"I sat in the art room and painted or sat with a couple other students in the psychology teacher's room!
"A few of my friends and I preferred to sit in the art room to avoid any unnecessary drama during the most sacred time of day. It was great, very peaceful."
Photo: via Giphy.
"Our" Table
"Our group had a designated table. If you didn't fit at the table, you just stood around it. You NEVER sat anywhere else. If you were super-cool and involved, you hung out in the student organization office that was in the back of the cafeteria. The rebels stood outside and smoked."
Photo: via Giphy.
The English Room
"I attended high school in rural Virginia and my crowd (the sensitive nerds) didn't eat in the cafeteria, because other kids threw stuff at us. We initially tried to eat lunch in stairwells, but it wasn't allowed. Officers patrolled the hallways and stairwells during lunch and sent people back to the cafeteria.
"The AP English teacher, Dr. Locke, eventually created a sanctuary for us. He let us sit in his classroom during lunch and pretended we were there to do work so we wouldn't be removed to the cafeteria by patrolling officers."
Photo: via Giphy.
The Drama Room
"I sat in the drama class with other drama people and our teacher. A lot of other people went off campus to eat!"
"In 11th grade, there was this group of maybe four or five people who would sit with the drama teacher in her classroom (which was basically a dungeon, because there were no windows). They thought they were so cool — and she thought she was really cool. I remember when they were graduating, she was kind of on a lookout for her 'next group' and made it seem like a club you couldn’t get into, but she was a teacher. It was just really bizarre."
Photo: via Giphy.
At Home
"In my high school, we were allowed to leave campus for lunch and a bunch of people in my group lived near the school, so we'd all trek to someone's house and eat them out of house and home."
"We would generally go to one person's house regularly for a while, until a parent complained about how fast all the Hot Pockets were disappearing. Then, we'd go to someone else's. I remember my mother coming home at lunch unexpectedly and being appalled to find nine teenagers eating grilled cheese sandwiches in her living room. We were basically a plague of very large locusts that came to eat all of the groceries."
Photo: via Giphy.
The Library
"I went to international school. When I moved there in the 10th grade, I sat in the library by myself sometimes. Then, I found this nice group that would sit on the roof of the cafeteria, sort of (it was kind of a strange setup). It was kind of far away from everything and I sat there for all of 10th grade and was really happy that I had people to sit with...and it was kind of sad."
Photo: via Giphy.
The Floating Table
"I sat with the cheerleaders and female basketball players. Then, I'd sit with the artists. I’d switch tables every other day!"
Photo: via Giphy.
The Inclusive Table
"This is middle school, but I used to sit with my friends at the same table in the lunch room every day. There was a boy in our grade who was constantly bullied and no one would let him sit with them during lunch. I've never felt prouder of my friends than we we all looked at each other, decided that enough was enough, and invited him to come sit with us. It took no effort at all to make someone's day better and it was really fun to add a new personality and dynamic to our lunch group."
Photo: via Giphy.
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