Posted on 03/13/2017 5:12:58 AM PDT by simpson96
When the lunch bell rings at Boca Raton Community High School in Boca Raton, Florida, 3,400 kids spill into the courtyard and split into their social groups.
But not everyone gets included. Here at Boca High and at schools across the country, someone always sits alone.
Its not a good feeling, like youre by yourself. And thats something that I dont want anybody to go through, said Denis Estimon.
When he came here in first grade as a Haitian immigrant, he says he felt isolated, especially at lunch.
Now hes a senior. Hes popular. But he has not forgotten that first grade feeling.
To me its like, if we dont try to go make that change, whos going to do it? he said.
So with some friends, Denis started a club called We Dine Together.
Their mission is to go into the courtyard at lunchtime to make sure no one is starving for company. For new kids especially, the club is a godsend.
Since it started last fall, hundreds of friendships have formed, some very unlikely.
Jean Max Meradieu actually quit the football team, gave up all perks that come with it, just so he could spend more time with this club.
I dont mind not getting a football scholarship. This is what I really want to do, Jean said.
Just imagine how different your teenage years would have been if the coolest kids in school all of a sudden decided you mattered.
Well get to know each other better, Jean said to another student.
"Members of We Dine Together work the courtyard."
(Excerpt) Read more at ktvq.com ...
Maybe some people just want to sit alone.
This is a very cool thing to do. I am sure that if some want to sit alone, it still an option. But, for the majority who might just be socially awkward, I think this is a great thing.
I will perceive this as well-intentioned but I would not rule out that some folks, especially during the awkward teen phase, are sitting alone because they *want* to be alone.
Of course, I grew up in a time when a lone student wasn’t a target for gangs so perhaps this is more of a social protection thing.
Giving up the football team for this? I guess he thinks those free-ride scholarships grow on trees.
-—Maybe some people just want to sit alone.——
Teenagers are social animals, I doubt anyone desires to sit alone isolated from the rest of their peers...
A grumpy old man like me....leave me alone...
I can’t wait for these snowflakes to face a determined and blood thirsty enemy.
I know! Just say ‘Wannabe my friend?’.
I can’t believe the cynicism on this thread. These people are being Christ to the loners.
What happened to getting stoned in the woods behind the school with your friends? /sarc
I was odd man out during my school years — the weird preacher’s kid who wasn’t allowed to dance, wear shorts or slacks, go to movies, etc. It wasn’t fun then, but it made me stronger as an adult.
It’s nice to have a choice every so often, but many school kids use lunch time to decompress and don’t mind being “invisible” for twenty or so minutes.
But why do they need a club?
Obviously none of these kids were going to sit with these people unless it was done under an official structure, so it is self-serving and wholly vapid of geniality.
Take it from the guy that sat alone. We aren’t stupid.
“These people are being Christ to the loners.”
What was stopping them before there was a “club” to do it?
I didn’t really come into my own as far as being social and having a lot of friends and acquaintances until I went away to college. I don’t have a single high school friend remaining in my life and didn’t have that many to start with. It wasn’t a miserable experience, I participated in sports, it was OK, but it didn’t really mean any more to me than any other public or private school I attended. Hearing all the stories people love to tell, seeing the nostalgia movies, etcetera makes me look back and think that maybe I missed out on something and maybe I did, but it was the life that I lived and that was who I was at the time, so it couldn’t have been otherwise. I didn’t always dine alone at lunch during high school but didn’t see why it was a big deal if I did. I didn’t feel shunned, it just wasn’t all that important to me.
I worked in high school, no time for a social life.
Funny how differently people live their lives. I remain very close with several friends from High School, including my best friend. But, NONE from college. That's not really intentional. I had some close friends in college. But, we all split and went many different directions. And, we NEVER have reunions.
I was pretty lucky though. I went from kindergarten through High School in the same small town. Many of these friends I met in nursery school. By the time we all reached High School, there wasn't much "fitting in" to be done. We were more like family. Of course, even in family... there are some you like more than others. ;-)
I didn’t work when school was in session but did summers and the longer holidays. I suppose I was sort of an island because I lived away from people, closest neighbor being a half mile away and the only kids my age a substantial walk or bike ride away. I was comfortable on my own, with my dogs. The art of conversation wasn’t something I appreciated all that much until it became really necessary.
closest neighbor being a half mile away
If I’d have remained with the same set of kids all the way through it probably would have been different. As it stood, the only ones I would call friends in hindsight I actually did know and attend school with from kindergarten onward through high school. It was an odd circumstance, school redistricting, court forced busing to what was then the worst district in the county, going into a private Baptist school for two years then moving out to the country. There were four other boys whose parents had made the very same decisions as mine and they were the friends that I had.
Honestly, this is a decent idea.
We didn’t own all that it was pasture, farm fields and timberland owned by farmers. My paternal grandparents were farmers in the same county but not on that end of it, we “only” had ten acres. So, we were outsiders even if distantly related to every last one of them.
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