Hannah Hecht's Blog

Almost every student in the Morningside cafeteria goes through the exact same steps three times a day. Walk through the doors. Dig your student ID out of your ID holder, usually attached to your room keys: a Vera Bradley paisley holder for girls and the standard issue Morningside insignia one that comes in your freshman folder for guys. Hand it to the ID taker. Give the cafeteria lady a generic thank you, unless it’s dinner, in which case you call him by name: “Thanks, Les.” Then, go to a table and set your keys and smartphone on it, to mark it as your own. Don’t even give it a second thought; nothing gets stolen at Morningside.  Then, survey the options. After you’ve seen everything that the five lines have to offer, jump in a line. Don’t make causal conversation with the other people in the line unless they are your friends. Get your food, then drink (always in that order), then go back to your table to enjoy your meal.

The process that students go through in the caf is almost robotic since they do it so many times throughout the year. Some people (cough, the track team) even sit at the same table for every meal of every day.

The people who are most interesting to watch in the caf are usually the ones who end up sitting alone. Whenever I see someone sitting alone at the caf, I usually just assume that his or her friends are busy. But, the person sitting alone obviously feels judged. They usually pull out their phone or computer and keep hunched over it. Sometimes they will self-consciously scan the caf, making sure that none of their friends are sitting across the room. They also tend to eat fast, to minimize the time that they have to spend alone in a crowded room.