I'm Not Really a Lunch Person - Maddie Kowalewski

I’m Not Really a Lunch Person

I’ve never really been a lunch person. I thought it was a pointless meal. You can eat lunch food for dinner and dinner food for lunch so why need a separate meal. To complicate this relationship further, at the start of this trip, food and I were not on speaking terms.

I started this trip sick. In the middle of a 24-hour stomach flu, I walked on the plane still delirious from the fever and unable to stomach the thought of eating. It only got worse as the plane lifted off the ground. An hour into the flight I had an anxiety attack. I couldn’t catch my breath. I couldn’t stand up. I couldn’t go home.

I think it’s safe to say the trip was not off to a good start.

All I wanted to do was lay down. I wanted to curl up and sleep for the next three days. I called my parents told them I couldn’t do it. Told them I needed to leave. My anxiety was at an all-time high and I couldn’t cope with the stress.

So, I gave myself a deadline. I told myself that if things didn’t change by the time, I started my classes, started my internship, I would go home.

What changed? Why did I decide to stay?

Well, I became a lunch person.

I had one week before starting at RPP. One week to pull myself together. One week to figure out what I would pack for lunch.

One week after my arrival, I woke up at what felt like the crack of dawn, got dressed, and left to catch my bus. My bus ride is 25 minutes followed by a 7 minute walk. The first day I got off the bus I got swept up in the crowd and walked in the wrong direction.

After making several more wrong turns and worrying I was arriving too early I made it too RPP. RPP is a government affairs consultancy specialized in promoting the societal value of technologies and products by linking stakeholders, advocates, and policymakers in carefully developed campaigns. I walked up to the door, buzzed in and waited in the lobby to meet my line manager. I introduced myself and followed him into the elevator.

Arriving the first day it felt like every five minutes I was meeting a new person, shaking a hand, introducing myself as the American from the New York-New Jersey Area.

The morning flew by and my anxiety rose once again as lunch approached. I had no idea what time people ate or for how long. I never really was a big lunch person, so I packed a few snacks to hold me over.

I watched people walk into the kitchen and make there lunch. Literally make their lunch. Like prep from start to finish. They grabbed plates and bowls and chopped and sliced ingredients. They were preparing full on meals and I had carrots in a plastic bag because I hadn’t had time to go to the store and buy a reusable container.

Slowly I began to eat lunch like them, I’d keep all my salad ingredients in the kitchen fridge, heat up my food in a ceramic bowl instead of a plastic container. I appreciated the hour take a break from work and enjoy the company. It was the only time in the day where everyone stopped working and talked about anything but work. Lunch became more than a meal. Lunch is where I got to know my coworkers and where they got to know me. It is reason I stayed.