Renowned for their ability to carry food to school, lunchboxes have also been discredited to the dorks and the nerds; but what it is is for the adults.
IN DEFENSE OF A LUNCHBOX
Lunchboxes—clutching them with a little fist, swinging at your side on the first day of school. Prepared and packed along with all your pens and pencils. The mark of a child. The companion containing your parent’s love – peanut butter and jelly tucked beside a carton of “Apple & Eve”, even paired with a small serving of purple grapes.
You grow up and ditch the lunchbox. Instead, you eat at the cafeteria in middle school, drive to the nearest plaza in high school with your parents’ car rather than your parents’ food. Lunchboxes lose their novelty. Bulky and awkward, they cannot sling on your back or hang from your shoulder the same way a backpack or purse can.. It has nowhere to hold, nothing to wrap around, simply hanging from one hand through the hallways, swinging at your side. Without anywhere to go, a lunchbox becomes the essential and awkward accessory of any nerd at any middle or high school.
With a lunchbox, there is an inherent assumption that someone cooked and packed and prepped a bag of snacks for your day at school. Do high schoolers, taking APs and driving cars, need mommy to pack them lunch every day? Surely not; making a lunchbox the trademark of a dork, of a child who never grew up.
But what is a lunchbox in university?
As clunky as a lunchbox is, outwardly awkward and a hassle to carry about, it becomes the needed accessory of any adult spending hours on a college campus, commuting between classes and jobs and friends. It is the essence of independence, control and adulthood.
With a lunchbox, there is endless opportunity for snacks, sandwiches and sustenance. As much as you might look like a dork, swinging your lunchbox at your side, you are well-fed, nourished and responsible.
On a college campus, food is not readily available without a dining plan. And even dining plans have limitations, with only so many meal swipes and funds available to spend on campus. Menus are limited, having to cater to a range of different diets, cultures and allergies. But a home-packed lunch accommodates both what you need and what you crave.
With a lunchbox, there is far more control in what you eat. Rather than eating out or buying to-go meals at the supermarket, there is so much more value and preparing and packing your own feed. Even if it sits for several hours and isn’t the most fresh, there is so much pride to be had in eating a sandwich you made yourself, packed and prepped that morning as a treat after class.
PARTNER IN CRIME: SANDWICH IDEAS
Sandwiches are an iconic food and a rather notable companion for a lunchbox. Peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese, tuna and mayo, the possibilities are endless.Two slices of bread and practically whatever you want in between.
An essential breakfast sandwich should always include an egg. It’s an egg that adds an element of density to any sandwich lacking real meat. Versatile, flavorful and if you’re feeling risky, a bit runny on the yolk.
Frying an egg and leaving cheese to melt on the pan is an ideal starting point for any sandwich, even a sandwich that happens to be eaten later than 11 a.m. As much as we all want to deny it, a pinch of grease in any food is ideal, and allowing the cheese to melt over the egg permeates a little bit of additional oil and flavor that may have otherwise been missing. There is a lot of versatility with a fried egg and cheese, considering vegetables, condiments and the possible additional protein.
A breakfast sandwich can have possibilities in terms of presentation. Though the fried egg remains a centerpiece, the addition of toppings is at its consumer’s choice. In addition to the usual character of a breakfast sandwich, an additional option is adding spinach, ham, and Thousand Island’s dressing, which acts like a substitute for chipotle aioli or some other spicy sauce. An ideal sandwich is one so overfilled, that wrapped in tinfoil, it looks like a brick locked away in a plastic bag. Sauces and vegetables vary its presentation, with vegetation coming loose from the two slices of bread and sauce percolating from under the egg.
A lunch sandwich is even more flexible than a breakfast sandwich, leaving behind the egg which was previously essential for its identity. There is so much creative control into what can go into a sandwich. Possibilities include meat, vegetables or even chips!
CLOSING ARGUMENT
The inherent mystery of what a lunchbox can hold is what makes it so mature. Eccentric and over-the-top in appearance, it conceals sensational, flavorful wonder. With all of its content tucked away, it is only you who knows what makes it up. What you have to look forward to and knowing you will save a good $15 on the lunch you would have had to spend.
The humble house of a sandwich and limitless snacks, a lunchbox makes up the essential equipment of any successful student, adult or societal member.
