If you haven’t already heard, UNCW’s Campus Dining is switching things up for the 2015-2016 school year. Meal swipes are no more. In its place are what is known as “teal meals.” Here are the 5 stages you may have gone through–from first hearing about this strange change to finally giving in and getting a new meal plan.
Stage 1: Confusion
At first, you had no idea what this “teal meal” thing even was. Over summer, you got the email to choose your meal plan and nobody had told you that everything as you knew it was about to change so drastically. You were shocked and you quickly texted your BFF to see what she thought of the whole situation. And quickly, you learned that eating as you knew it was about to change forever.
Stage 2: Denial
You wondered if you should even get a meal plan at all. Was it even worth all the trouble of learning how the new system worked? Would getting a new meal plan even be worth it? Though it wasn’t immediate, a fire began to burn inside of you. You blamed the university for the change and deep down felt like it just wouldn’t work. Initially, you swore off even getting a meal plan, because who really needs all that trouble? It wouldn’t come until later that you realized you actually might need a meal plan after all.
Stage 3: Frustration
Let’s face it. It was somewhat annoying that Campus Dining decided to change things up on us with no forewarning. We were thrown into the sea of changes unprepared and we quickly had to face the fact that you can’t use teal meals for guests and that you had a limited number of teal meals with an all access plan. Using teal meals felt like a challenge and you constantly asked yourself, “What even is a teal meal?”
Stage 4: Understanding
After doing a brief fact check, you slowly began to understand the inner workings of this strange new system. You realized that a teal meal was basically the equivalent of a meal swipe and that Hawk’s was now more accessible during the day (but unfortunately didn’t include Freshens Smoothies anymore). Perhaps the best realization of all was that Chick-fil-A expanded and easily became the most popular place to eat on campus (with the use of teal meals, of course).
Stage 5: Acceptance
Though it was a slow and unpleasant process, you began to accept the fact that eating on campus changed–for the better in some ways, the worse in others. After the first day, you realized that it’s not as confusing and frustrating as you once thought. You learned to accept the changes for what they are and continued eating on campus (almost) as normally as ever.
Still confused about the new meal plans? Head over to the campus dining homepage to gain some clarity!
Cover image courtesy of Campus Dining Twitter.