A College Diet

One of the things I dislike the most about college is living on a meal plan. I'm not sure what it's like at larger colleges where there's more options, but here our only options on campus were the dining hall or Subway until this year when we got a Papa Johns, Starbucks, and this grill place. I definitely enjoy having more options, but you don't want to eat at a fast food restaurant all the time.

And our dining hall food is not the greatest. Actually, I'm being kind here. It's probably the biggest complaint most current students have about the food. The only time it's decent is when "important" people are on campus, and as a warning for any high schoolers making college plans, "important" people includes potential students. Just keep that in mind when you visit a school and they feed you at the dining hall because it's probably not what you'd be getting regularly. The food is either bland or bland and spicy. Bland and spicy may not make sense to some people, but I promise you that's what half the food in our dining hall is. It's like they just packed heat into it to disguise the fact that there's no other flavor, and they choose to do this with the strangest foods that you don't expect to be hot at all until you bite into them.

Needless to say, I don't eat in the dining hall all that often, which I feel sort of guilty for. Living on campus, having a meal plan is required, and this year they changed it so the only meal plan available involves unlimited meals in the dining hall. (They also upped the money on our accounts to spend in the restaurants, so that's a bonus.) Because I paid for this unlimited amount of meals, I feel like I should take advantage of it much more than I do. This almost always results with me feeling determined to start eating there almost every meal, and then it stops after several meal times once I realize that I just cannot stomach that food that often.

I don't know what college students did before microwaves because I'd be in a mess if it weren't for mine, although I'd also love to not have to spend money on groceries when I already bought a meal plan. Still, I know that I have access to food, and that's more than a lot of people, which I'm thankful for. I just really wish the dining hall would stop it with the strange hot foods. It's a tad bit weird.