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KerriAnn

Food Fight!

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It was seventh grade. I was 12 years old. Lunch time at school. I don't know how it started, but a few minutes into lunch in the school cafeteria and a food fight erupted. It was total chaos. It was pasta day, so there was a lot of noodles and sauce flying around.

I don't remember all of the details, but I do remember the feeling that my friends and I experienced immediately after. It was fun, yes, but the feeling that stuck with me, a feeling I have rarely felt since, was a kind of raw anarchy that was completely exhilarating. There were so many of us, and very few teachers and school staff. We outnumbered them by at least ten to one. They could not control the food fight! They screamed as loud as they could, blew their whistles and shook their fists, but in the end, it had to die out on its own. I suppose we ran out of food to throw, because the fight lasted through the rest of the 30 minute lunch period.

My peers could not stop talking about it. Who started it? Who got spaghetti sauce in their hair? But the biggest question was- what would our punishment be?

To all of our surprise and relief, there was no punishment. No one snitched on the instigator. No one blamed anyone else for anything. The students were all united on this one.

And so we heard a few harsh words about how disappointed the principal was, maybe a note sent home to the parents, and that was it. We pulled it off! But what exactly had we done? Why did it make us all feel so empowered?

We realized, although maybe only on a subconscious level, that we outnumbered our masters. We realized that we could do anything if we were all united towards one goal. There were many of us, and few of "them". And although we were smaller, younger, and had no authority given to us at school, we pulled off the most exciting event of the school year without any real punishment.

It's still true today. We are the "us", and they are the "them". If we realize what our goal is, we can win. They cannot control us. We outnumber them by much larger numbers than my peers and I in school. So who should be scared?


They should be scared of us, and they are.
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