Food frenzy

The new Central High School is home to more than 1,000 hungry students. Now that there is a closed campus, lunchtime involves a little trickery in avoiding the masses when trying to get some food in your stomach.

The menu this year is composed of everything from deli subs and pizza to nachos and gyros. With so many choices, so many people, and so little time, there are bound to be some major traffic jams in each of Central's four lunch periods.

Forget about taking a leisurely walk from your previous class to the Commons Area for lunch. If you want food fast, you have to move fast. Once arriving at the double doors leading to the lunch lines, students often find that it is possible to fit eight people through a door at one time. From there it gets a little more orderly, if you consider that students form relative blobs that look like they are going in some sort of direction, most of which are to the pizza line.

When you are in this situation you are either big and bold and take your chances, or weak and fragile and wait your turn. You must maintain strict attention when you are in a line -- blob -- because if a millimeter of space comes between you and the person in front of you there is a good chance someone could slip in there just when you aren't looking. At least another minute of delay will be added to your wait before getting your food.

One thing that makes it so crowded in the food lines is the fact that everyone in there still has their backpacks on, which makes them basically two people. Of course, there are the people who wait for the lines to subside and then get their food, but that's just not my style. I must have as much time as possible to eat my food and drink my hard-earned strawberry smoothie that cost me a stout $1.50.

I do try to improve my efficiency every day in getting my food. By trying to shave off a second here and there I feel as though I have conquered something.

Without the struggles in the lunch lines I guess high school wouldn't be as cool, because when you got to eat you got to eat.

Ozbun, 15, is a student at Central High School and is a member of the Class of 2morrow Teen Advisory Panel.