Walking into a university food court can be one of the most nerve wrecking experiences any student can go through, just as nerve wrecking as a final exam believe it or not. For one if you haven’t made up your mind on what you’re going to have when you get there you almost feel as though you have walked into a gladiators ring armed with nothing but the cash in your pocket to protect you from the multitude of food stalls at your disposal, not to speak of the hovering crowds that tend to make you feel like a minute creature trying to maneuver its way through a colony. I mean choosing what to have for lunch can be a very difficult endeavor.

I always find it really daunting when I step into the food court at my school. The setup of the courtyard itself leaves a lot to be questioned. Whoever decided that all the tables should be cramped up that close anyways? Who is the ingrate that chose to have VH-1 play old 70s music off an old tube-derriere’d television set? And most importantly I don’t understand why the food outlets insist on never getting creative about the meals they offer. Sometimes I feel like us as the youth we have taken ourselves into the next dimension, the dimension that only thrives when we are hip, energetic, fun filled with excessive passion with a taste for everything exquisite and that the older generation has been left behind in a state of conformity. This portrays itself so well in the food and the service delivery around the food we have, especially in controlled institutions.

Whenever I look at my timepiece and realize its lunch time so many thoughts inhabit my mind, do I keep it retro and go with a balance of greasy, meaty takeaways dashed with a fizzy cocktail or stay fresh and keep my lunch eco-friendly. I sure know I speak for everyone when I say choosing sheer, unhinged satisfaction over a palate of greens and a bottle of refreshing still water is no easy choice but when your only options are to fatten yourself or have sub-standard, falsely advertised “fresh & healthy” food, you really don’t have an option because the latter just ends up fattening you up anyway. I use the word ‘fat’ loosely, but to be frank all takeaway foods are packed with high cholesterol and the way I see it you might as well be jamming a brick of butter down your throat every time you have lunch from a food court.

What I’m driving at is how much I would love to walk in to a modern food court. To have my ears massaged by a soothing local band keeping the vibes mellow and just right for some good digestion to take place. To look up at the LCD TV’s on the walls and see some models strutting the newest fashion lines, doing what they do best. I mean some of these kids I see on campus need the fashion exposure, if you know what i mean. Or better yet just have simple, retro, invigorating and captivating art on the walls. To walk through a clean, open space that’s well designed with a personalized feel at home touch intentionally branded to it. It would be wonderful to have a sit across a stranger, in a quiet area and just have a steady conversation with them without having to overhear the people sitting next to us bicker about how their Data Structures & Algorithms test kicked their behinds. I’m envisioning a futuristic food court, one that understands a young person’s needs. A food court that sells itself way before we even get to the food.

As for the food – we will no longer have over priced sandwiches that really do nothing for our health levels or measly snacks that couldn’t satisfy a sugar craved infant if they were promoted to. As an A ’grade herbivore, I personally would kill to walk up to a proper fresh fruit and vegetable stall and have a salad prepared for me while I watch and wait. I know the greasy food junkies would also slaughter to have a chef whip up some meaty ordeal and just get a kick out of seeing their food made for them. No-one ever said kitchens have to be at the back of the take-away joints anyways.

The only way I’ll get to see such a vision in reality will solely be determined by how much change we wish to influence in the establishments around us as the youth. Our parents pay exorbitant amounts of money to get us through a system as old as time itself really. The end goal being for us to further ourselves and grow within this construct. However all I ever see from us is endless rushing and no time taken out to ponder, if we all took some time out to think about the world we actually want to live in, we could actually begin to mould and shape this world into what we want it to be, we could actually begin to grow. How beautiful is that? To live in a world that constantly transforms around the needs of inhabitants because in actual fact, change is about the only constant we have in this world. So let us embrace change and make our world a better place starting with our food courts. Food is life and life is everything we have so I’m sure you can all agree on how much of a worthwhile cause this would be.

Peace, Love & Good Food | KamzThxPxpe