While most of my articles focus on providing helpful advice to current or future law students, I decided to do something a little different this month: list out all the awkward, silly, and downright hilarious things I’ve seen my fellow students eat (or drink) during class over my three years in law school. Some are practical, some are nourishing, and some even upset the professors—learn from these mistakes.
Students in my classes ate:
- An entire baked potato, skin and all.
- Chili; the professor stopped the lecture and commented, “Do I smell chili? Is someone eating chili in my class?”
- 3 packages of Starburst. (This was hilarious because they had to quietly unwrap each piece of candy under the desk before eating. It was like Mission Impossible, but in Torts.)
- An entire catering-size thermos of black coffee.
- A tuna salad sandwich
- An egg salad sandwich (same person that brought the tuna salad)
- A platter of McDonalds pancakes (I didn’t even know they served those anymore.)
- Wine; in the bathroom during a break in our three-hour lecture.
- A pizza they Doordashed to the school during class.
- An entire package of gum—I don’t mean they just chewed it; I mean they ate it during a lecture. Swallowing piece by piece.
- A can of pineapple (telling on myself here—that was me)
- Two frozen TV dinners
- A plate of food from the café downstairs, which they went to buy during class. Professor noticed them returning with a plate of chicken tenders, commenting “Oh I’m sorry Stephen, are we interrupting your lunch?” (Yikes.)
- Approximately $3,000 of Starbucks food each semester. (Two coffee drinks each morning, three pastries, and a snack box multiplied by the number of classes each week—don’t worry, his family was very well off; even gave him a “food and house allowance” so he didn’t have to spend time cooking or cleaning when he wasn’t in class.)
- A fruit smoothie, made with a blender they kept in their locker.
- Fish and chips. Yep—you read that right.
- One of those loud, crumbly Nature Valley granola bars.
- Tomato soup and grilled cheese.
- Four hardboiled eggs with salt. (I get the appeal—lean protein during a morning lecture. But watching this man painstakingly peel and then eat these eggs whole was something else.)
Look, law school is stressful—both mentally and physically. Sometime during the 40+ hours a week you spend in class (or studying in the library) you’re going to get hungry. Here’s a good rule of thumb: nix all foods that are loud, messy, or particularly smelly. Never Doordash food to class. Never pack something so distracting that you (or others around you) won’t be able to focus. And never—ever—eat chili in class.
