This Saturday the 2011 edition of Progress will be included in The Franklin County Times. The theme for this year is 40 under 40: The future of Franklin County.

Included are profile stories about two students from each of the area high schools. While talking to my coworkers we noticed the only thing the students feel they will miss most about high school are their friends.

I guess it is because I have been gone from high school for a while now – I graduated in 1998 – but I really don’t miss my friends.

I stayed in touch with my closest friends and I have reconnected with most of the others on social network Web sites such as Facebook.

I don’t get to spend as much free time with them as I did when I was in high school, but my priorities have changed. I guess getting older does that to all of us.

The conversation did get me to thinking about what I missed most from high school.

There were classes I took that I enjoyed — all of my English classes, geometry and principals of technology — but I do not miss them. I do, however, miss some of the classes I took in college, because I felt there was still much to learn, but not enough time. Unless I changed my major, but there was not enough money to do that either.

I had some great teachers, but I do not miss them either.

Surprisingly the thing I miss most is the food. I have eaten many meals of much better quality than the ones I consumed in high school, but there is something about some of those dishes I loved and have not been able to find a reasonable substitute for in the real world.

The best example would be the pizza. You know the little rectangular pieces of bread with some kind of tomato sauce, some white cheese and, if we were lucky, some chunks of pepperoni.

I know it’s not really pizza. The frozen pizza rolls you buy at the store are closer to authentic pizza than what they serve in school cafeterias, and those are not authentic at all.

But there is something about the pizza that is good in its own way.

I also miss the chicken nuggets. Those are the best chicken nuggets I have ever eaten, with the exception of the ones I get at Chick-fil-A. Nothing is better than those, but the nuggets at school are a close second.

I also loved the taco salad they served at my high school. It was some of the best I have ever tasted period.

Maybe I don’t miss the food because of the quality. Perhaps it is the nostalgic feeling I get thinking about sitting at the lunch table with my friends and talking about the important things in life, which, 13 years after the fact I realize were not all that important.

Maybe the reason I love it so much now is because I know what a value it is. I could feast for a couple of dollars. You can’t find that good of a deal in the real world even if you order off the value menu of your favorite fast-food joint.

Whatever the reason, I miss school food. I would love to eat school food once again, but even if I were given the opportunity I would pass.

There are some things you remember fondly and don’t want to ruin the memories. School lunch is one of those things for me.