silent lunches were so….weird. like the entire cafeteria was expected to be quiet and it usually was a punishment for something super dumb tbh like i remember a bunch of kids popped plastic bags one day so we got silent lunch for a week and everyone was just….sitting there all quiet. it was duuuumb
the only funny part tho was sitting around ur friends and all of u trying VERY VERY HARD not to laugh when someone makes a face or something like that, or trying to sneak into the bathroom so u can talk…even then tho fuck silent lunches
ppl keep going “what the FUCK is a silent lunch why would schools have that” and im like. genuinely so forgetful abt the fact that silent lunches are one of those american public school things that literally dont make any sense
i don’t remember what grade it was (middle school, either seventh or eighth grade) but our school had split lunches where two grades would have lunch at the same time (for example, grades four and eight would have lunch at the same time every day but would sit on opposite sides of our cafeteria).
anyways apparently at one point the lunchroom aides and teachers got fed up with the fact that like. 200 kids in a room at a time was loud? so one day we walked into the cafeteria and they had a stoplight. like red, yellow, green traffic stoplight.
if the noise level was “fine” then it was green, if it was getting loud it went yellow, and if it went red because it was too loud an alarm would go off and everyone would have to be silent. the “silent” time was between 2-5 minutes.
if kids talked when the light was red than they got detention/standing against a wall during recess, dependent on their age. and if the light went red and the alarm went off more than three times, than it was silent lunch for the rest of the period.
this post made me remember the light thing and how just like. terrified it made me lol as a kid with anxiety having to deal with an alarm going off everytime a room full of 200 kids got loud. lol
I remember years ago listening to a doctor speak on the radio and something stuck with me ever since. I’m paraphrasing but the gist was this:
When someone who has been sad, distant, not themselves for a while suddenly starts going out of there way to see people, often giving them gifts or possessions don’t assume they got ‘better’. This is the time to really ask them if they are okay; to reach out and not simply accept the answer of ‘fine’ or ‘great’ or ‘never better’. Because for some people the relief of having made the decision to end their life can make them happy, euphoric even.
He pointed out that often this change in the person is such a relief to their friends and family after having seeing someone they love suffer, they just don’t realise what has caused the change and frankly they don’t want to ‘rock the boat’ because they are just so happy to have the person they love ‘back’. But in reality, the person they love is saying goodbye.
During the interview, he told the story of a colleague (back when he had a factory job before he became a doctor) who had been depressed for a long time. One day he came in and was really happy, people kept commenting on how good it was that he wasn’t sad and grumpy anymore. He gave people some of his things, took people to lunch. Went home and killed himself.
He explained that when the police came to talk to people, they told him it was a common story they heard “but they were so much better.”
So be there for your friends and family. Tell them what they mean to you. Let them talk to you without fear of judgement. LISTEN. Suggest people get help if you think they need it.
Finally, let me add: The world will not be better off without you in it. You matter. You will be missed. Please don’t harm, hurt or kill yourself.
my big idea for a superhero movie is that one scene in thor ragnarok where matt damon has a cameo but it’s all the time. you have your ensemble cast of up and coming actors nobody recognizes but literally every single extra is a household name. the protagonist goes to a coffee shop and the barista is chris evans. they turn on the news and the anchor is mark hamill talking to correspondent daniel radcliffe. the final battle happens and the group of civilians the protagonist has to save is just the cast of love actually. cate blanchett has an after credits scene where she asks the protagonist for an autograph, addressed to her real name, cate blanchett. at no point does anyone acknowledge this.
a girl in one of my classes sent out an email saying “you’ll be having a furry classmate this semester” and my heart stopped but she was talking about her service dog
Borne Ceaseless 