At the beginning of junior year, a plague descends on Enloe students: the off-campus lunch pass (OCLP). While some students may be more concerned with whether or not to pursue AP Capstone or the IB Diploma Programme, the OCLP has a much more far-reaching impact on student life, arguably rendering it the most significant item of a student’s high school career. Yet despite the overwhelming evidence that OCLPs are detrimental to student wellbeing, Eagles continue to cave to the pressure of their peers, year after year. If YOU are considering whether the OCLP is right for you, make sure you take the following advice to heart — before it’s too late.
- “I mean, [OCLP holders] don’t even have a senior year, like, they’re just thinking about lunch all the time. It’s literally so stressful, they can never relax, it’s just lunch, lunch, lunch — they never think about anything else.”
- “[The OCLP is] just another way for students to ‘stand out,’ but in reality, colleges don’t care whether you have one or not. I know SO many people who worked SO hard to get their off-campus lunch pass — getting their parents’ permission, even going to a notary. And they got rejected from ALL their dream schools. Talk about a waste of time.”
- “I think [the OCLP] really interferes with your ability to have a social life. Some of my friends decided to get them, and now, I literally never see them anymore. They’re always off-campus, eating lunch… without me.”
- “In my opinion, [whether or not to pursue the OCLP] is a question of priorities. For me personally, I’m taking eight AP classes and four classes at Wake Tech, and I just don’t have the time to fill out the paperwork just to get some piece of plastic. No hate on those people who make a different decision, but for me, it really isn’t on the table.”
- “[The OCLP] is a status symbol, it’s a symbol of elitism, it’s a way for people to say, ‘I’m better than you.’ It’s like they think that the library and the courtyard just aren’t good enough for them anymore. Not that I feel this way, but it seems like they want us to feel like we’re inferior, just because we didn’t make the same choice that they did.”
- “At the end of sophomore year, I kept hearing kids talking about whether or not they would [pursue the OCLP] the next year. There was so much stress, so much pressure. It honestly ruined the end of sophomore year for me. I wish I hadn’t had to go through that, you know?”
- “[OCLP holders] are literally SO CLIQUEY. Like, they all go to Cookout together, they all go to Bojangles together, they all get stuck in traffic together. You’d think it was a secret society or something.”
- “The whole [OCLP] system reinforces the discriminatory hierarchy of underclassmen and upperclassmen, and I refuse to be a part of that.”
- “Honestly, [OCLP holders] just seem pretty obsessive. I know some kids who drive to Sodabox day after day, always asking for advice about the latest flavors. By the end of senior year, the staff know them by name, and they could practically make a portfolio of all their receipts. You’d almost think they were being graded on it.”
- “Some kids think that [their OCLPs] will help them become more ‘independent’ or something, but those kids have absolutely no sense of time management. They come back late, like, everyday, with their cold fries that they didn’t have time to eat. And then they’re in a bad mood about it. Trust me, I’ve seen it all.”
- “Those [OCLP holders] complain ALL THE TIME! ‘Oh my goodness, traffic was so bad today, these people don’t know how to drive, BLAH BLAH BLAH.’ It was literally their choice, they shouldn’t force the rest of us to listen to how much they regret their decision. I mean, come on y’all, let’s chill out.”
Obviously, pursuing the OCLP is a decision that has been taken far too lightly for far too long. We hope you share this article with as many Enloe students as possible to prevent this epidemic from spreading to the next generation. Thank you for your support.
