Rebecca Herman
I’ll paint you a picture. It’s a dark Tuesday winter’s afternoon in January; you’ve spent the morning in the silent study area of Hallward, aimlessly highlighting your notes for 4 hours hoping to soak in as much information as you possibly can. You begin to get a bit peckish and look around the room for some snack inspiration.
The first person you glance to is the boy to your left. He’s sketching away at a modern looking building so must be an architect or something. After having a nosey at his drawing, his snack catches your attention. In a Tupperware box, your study neighbour has a healthy selection ranging from mini cucumbers to vibrant coloured peppers.
You respect his healthy lifestyle choices and begin to imagine how refreshing the succulent tomatoes would be, and how they’d add a splash of flavour to your boring afternoon. But then you realise that with this rejuvenating snack comes enough noise to make quite a few enemies in this neck of the woods, so you turn away and look to your right for a new idea.
With the red skittle poking out of the packet, you instantly begin to crave something sweet
The messy desk of your right neighbour makes it difficult to spot the snack they are munching on. Submerged under the plethora of coloured pencils and gel pens you see a packet of Skittles and a Crunchie wrapper. Your mind can’t help but to try and guess their course… coloured pencils and fun snacks? This MUST be a geographer! As soon as your eyes make contact with the red Skittle poking out of the packet, you instantly begin to crave something sweet.
You then ponder the options available – there may be some cheap Christmas chocolate on sale still? What about a tea cake? Hhmm, but they can be a pain to transport? Your mind flickers through the entire Cadbury’s collection but you can’t help but envisage the sweet and smooth sensation of a classic Dairy Milk. You jot your idea down on your post-it note and then scour the room for the next snack audition.
You still have the crunch of the carrot but would the hummus be worth the sacrifice of your social status?
The girl in front of you screams English Lit. She has a mammoth stack of old books to her right and her herbal green tea to her left. All her hand-written notes are done in the finest ink and don’t fret, her snack is as put together as her work. Her M&S carrot and hummus pot stares at you. You still have the crunch of the carrot but would the hummus be worth the sacrifice of your social status? You hadn’t considered going this far into the realm of savoury, but have you just met the right component to turn your head?
As you gawp down every undergraduate in your nearby perimeter, you notice your friend trying to rush you out of the corner of your eye. As you close your laptop and grab your student card, you take one last look at the people around you.
You notice a boy with a massive box of purple grapes
You notice a boy with a massive box of purple grapes. The only downfall of his munch is the fact you can’t wash said grapes – probably something you should do in this ‘unprecedented time’. But, again, does this issue fade away when you focus on the sweet crisp pop of an indigo grape, plus the abundance of fruit in the punnet?
As you make your way down the icy Portland steps you have one final think about the food you have witnessed. You take a look at the scrunched up post-it note in your pocket and think hard about what route to go down.
10 minutes later you emerge from Spa with a box of crudité, a Dairy Milk, a packet of sweets, a hummus and carrot pot, and a punnet of fresh grapes. You proceed back to Hallward to what you hope to be a more productive afternoon; and lets face it, you have enough fuel to make it one.
Rebecca Herman
Featured image courtesy of Perfect Snacks via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made.
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