It’s hard to believe that it has been exactly 15 years since I witnessed the infamous food fight in my high school cafeteria. I will never forget that crazy day! It was the Friday before midterms week and every student in school was scrambling to prepare for their upcoming exams. I was an 11th grade student that year and was in my third period English class when I heard a few of my classmates talking about a potential food fight happening that day during seventh period lunch. Even though that was my lunch period and had been for most of my high school career, I wasn’t too concerned about it and kind of just laughed it off. I didn’t actually think anyone would go through with something like that without worrying they would get in trouble. The rest of the morning went by as normal and I got to seventh period lunch and sat at my usual lunch table. At my table were three other girls but I typically ate alone at the other end of the table because I was shy and usually kept to myself. There I was, 17 year old Colleen wearing my blue jeans and red hoodie that I wore almost every Friday and eating my usual packed lunch of sharp cheddar cheese, crackers, a bag of baby carrots and grape tomatoes, two cookies and a Hi C juice box. It seemed like any other lunch period at first. I finished my lunch and got out one of my journals to either write a story or jot down whatever was on my mind that day. I also had my white and light pink Walkman with FM Radio at the table with me as I did every Friday. Suddenly right at the end of the lunch period I heard a loud male voice yell out “FIGHT!!!” Food then started flying across the entire center of the cafeteria. I picked up all my belongings as fast as I could and attempted to throw them all in my magenta LL Bean backpack before I could get covered in food but I unfortunately dropped my Walkman in the process and the CD that was in it fell right on the floor. I quickly grabbed my CD and Walkman and crammed them into my backpack before running to the other side of the cafeteria near the gymnasium with the other girls from my lunch table. Eventually everyone in seventh period lunch was standing on that same side of the cafeteria away from the tables and chairs. Once the cafeteria was cleared out it looked like a food massacre had taken place. There was a mix of food and trash all over the floor, chairs and on the tabletops. Empty milk cartons, open bags of chips and a variety of food pretty covered the entire cafeteria. It was pretty disgusting. I felt sorry for the janitors who had to clean it up as we were all leaving for our 8th period classes. I also heard that the principal ran in, slipped on a milk carton and broke his wrist. I did not see this happen though. Maybe I was too busy trying to gather my belongings or it could have happened after I had left the cafeteria. But either way it made the food fight even crazier and probably got the students involved in even more trouble. The remainder of the school day went as normal. I had 8th period study hall and a geometry test before finally heading home on the bus with my brother, who was freshman. My mom was so shocked when my brother and I told her about the food fight. My brother was not in seventh period lunch so the story mostly came from me. My mom even had me call my sister in college to tell her the what happened at school, she loved those kinds of stories. Then my best friend even called me later to make sure I was okay because she knew I was in that lunch period. Fortunately I walked out of there unscathed without even a crumb of food on me. My mom was very relieved and said, “I would have been so mad if you had come home covered in food.” I was glad to have come out of it clean but it was kind of fun to have witnessed it and gotten to tell my account of the food fight to everyone I had seen that weekend. I was even asked about it at my church the following evening. Overall being in a high school food fight was one the craziest experiences of my life that I will never forget. Unfortunately my Walkman never worked the same again!
