The Mediocre Table

Driving my 13 year old son and his best friend to play practice today they discussed the advantages of middle school over elementary school. Most of these revolved around lunchtime--in middle school you can sit where you want, they don't make you talk quietly, you can fit as many kids at a table as you want, etc.

I asked, "Who do you guys sit with at lunch?"
"Oh," they said, "we sit at the mediocre table."
"What does that mean?" I asked laughing.
"Well, there is the cool kid table, with Nicky, Mike, (and some other names). Then there is the mediocre table, that is us, Connor, Austin, (and it seems like about 10 other boys)."
"So, who's left?"
"Oh, that's the rejects table...Zach, Cody, (and a few others.) The same is true for the girls, except they have the rejected by the rejects table, too."

Remember those days? Who was cool, who was not? I guess that doesn't end. I still see it at faculty dinners and meetings. Who is going to get to sit at the "cool table"? Who gets left at the reject table?

I know in school I was probably part of the vast "mediocre" group. I was certainly too nerdy and unattractive to be at the popular table. Funny, though, those of us at the mediocre table were pretty happy with our position.