March 25, 2014.

The ill-fated day when school administration, the kitchen crew, and ASB partnered to close down Fresh Mex and rid us of desserts.

The cause? Trash. Lots and lots of it. And despite the crows of “Why am I being punished for other people’s crimes?”…I can’t help but be just a little bit satisfied.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Fresh Mex just as much as anybody. After making my routine venture around the Bistro, Edge, and journalism to scope out food, I am drawn by the lure of milky horchata through the courtyard and the open doors of the gym.

I will brave rain and cold to make the lengthy trek for just a bean-and-cheese burrito or a paper tray of nachos. And when the churros run out, I sulk back to Manzanita with the same disappointed mien.

But, to be honest, revoking this privilege is a pretty good idea.

Before everyone gets anxious, let’s take a look at the situation.

For the purposes of this analysis (and to resemble a post-apocalyptic dystopian novel), we’ll call the litterbugs Dirties and the non-litterbugs Cleans. There’s quite a few benefits from closing down Fresh Mex and taking away dessert.

One. Hypothetically, the Dirties all undergo a simultaneous epiphany and realize that trash is, in fact, a grave problem at the Upper School. They will stop littering for the rest of their lives. (Optional: this point, they may or may not turn into ascetic monks and relinquish food altogether.)

Two. They’ll figure out that ASB isn’t messing around. This is an issue with real consequences, and punishment is going to be inevitable.
Three. At the very least, at least that pesky aluminum foil and those paper horchata cups won’t be targets of abuse. Lessen the ammo, lessen the crime…ideally.

As a generation, we don’t seem to be quite competent when it comes to cleaning up after ourselves. Despite the 4.0s and the 2400s, one thing we haven’t perfected is the art of picking up trash.

“School lunch is included in our tuition, so for them to take away the Mexican food and dessert is unfair,” quotes Aquila in an article about Fresh Mex closing.

Time for war flashbacks to the Challenger School. From preschool to eighth grade, the way we dealt with trash was a simple ultimatum: make sure your table in the auditorium is clean or you don’t get to go outside for lunch. We cleaned tables till our noses burned of Lysol, scrubbing off food regardless of whose it was.

It wasn’t about “that grape is yours so I’m not going to pick it up,” it was about “let’s help each other out so we can leave early.”
Obviously, this strategy doesn’t work for the spread-out, independent lunch of the Upper School, but some lessons can be taken from it.

Those of us that do actually pick up after ourselves shouldn’t take this decision as a personal affront to our values–removing Fresh Mex and desserts isn’t just meant to punish all of the Cleans.

We effectively become what our fellow Managing Editor Apoorva Rangan calls “decentralized trash police.” We become more aware, more involved, and more observant of our surroundings, and the issue becomes communal rather than individual.

it’s remarkable that a problem so seemingly trivial is having such a large impact. The entire issue stems from respect: respect for our campus, respect for the kitchen staff, and respect for our peers.

How someone could simply stand up and walk away from their dirty forks or empty plates is a mystery to me. Whose fault is it, if not each of ours?

In the end, the goal isn’t to punish individual Dirties. It’s to cultivate a clean, respectable campus and a student body that understands the obligation for a certain level of social responsibility.

That being said, hopefully we’ve learned our lesson this time–I don’t think I can suffer another day without tacos or a @harkercupcakes Instagram post. Stay clean!

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on April 4, 2014.