Nerd. Dork. Geek. Freak. The words are running through your mind as you grab a tray from the cafeteria and fill your plate with whatever the menu has to offer. After paying for your food, you grip the tray tightly, scanning the noisy dining hall for a place to eat your meal. You want to sit with those girls over there, with those guys on the football team, but the social structure set up by your peers is a very Mean Girls cafeteria scene and not really fair to others. After what feels like an eternity, you sit in the back of the room near a trash can and eat your lunch in silence, crying because your heart has never hurt this much and fuming over the fact that your classmates’ hearts are as cold as your stale chicken nuggets.
This heartbreaking scene has been the norm for students everywhere for as long as we can remember. Not anymore. Enter in “Sit With Us.” “Sit With Us” is an anti-bullying social networking app designed by a 16 year old girl who was a victim of severe harassment when she was younger. The goal of the program is to promote kindness and friendship to students of all ages. Kids can use the app to coordinate lunches with their friends and can even be an Ambassador for their schools, which allows them to post open lunch events on campus where everyone is invited to sit at their table. Inviting classmates to your lunch table not only fosters a warm, welcoming community, but it can create new friendships with a simple “Hey, how are you?”
The app also includes a profile with your own interests, the ability to add friends, create a “favorites” list, and a feature allows you to search for lunches nearby that want to make a change in the lives of others. More information on the app is on the website http://sitwithus.io.
Download the free app and be a part of a revolution that is even bigger than yourself, an act of kindness in a world of mean comments and glares. Who knows? You might just make someone’s day and even impact their life. The choice is yours to be kind-are you ready to step up to that challenge?
