I’ll have the Wahhhmburger and French Cries

“Have you ever walked down the street and seen a person who you just couldn’t stop staring at? Not because that person was hot or handsome, but because he or she was different and didn’t fit in – didn’t really look like other people.

Well, I’m one of those people. “

None of you have probably heard of Michael Mantell, or have read his self deprecating news article titled “A simple hello might make someone’s day.” I was expecting this article to be about reaching out to others, but rather, it is a whine for attention towards one’s condition.

I personally have never seen someone I could not stop staring at because I was stuck on the thought that that person did not fit in or “didn’t really look like other people.” Either way, we’re all “one of those people.” No two snowflakes are alike. At this day and age we have all learned that we are all different.

In a nutshell, Michael stands at 4’6”, weighs 120 pounds, and has Systemic Rheumatoud Arthritis. The side effects of his Arthritis have made him overweight. Thus, he sits alone in the cafeteria, and because his disease makes him unattractive and unapproachable, nobody is sitting with him, and he lacks the courage to ask someone to eat with him. Also because of his disease, he does not have someone to eat lunch with, a girlfriend, nor the potential to be the attractive boyfriend that every girl, deep down, wants. His solution to his problem is for us, the cafeteria eating people of Chapman, to make the first move.

Diseases should never be the blame for companionship or friendship. Think of Gabriel Iglesias. Engaged and not fat, but “Fluffy,” he has made not only friends but a career as a comedian out of his obesity and life experiences. Ralphie May, known in the comedy realm as well, previously weighed 800 pounds before turning thirty years old.

Relationship wise, there have always been those weird couples. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The Maury Show recently and currently airs episodes of “odd couples.” I have seen men that were tattooed from head to toe with uninked women and short men with amazons. There have been men in their eighties with women in there twenties.

I’m not saying that this kid is lame for whining about his problems. It’s rather that rather than changing himself, as in being more outgoing, or asking people to eat lunch with him, he wants us as readers to change. They say the key to change is to let go of fear. Frankenstein’s creation went through this trying to fit in with the townspeople of Geneva. Griffin went through the same issues when he became The Invisible Man and is accused of robberies and chased out of the town of Iping.


We don’t know how social Michael attempted to be. We don’t know if he went to Playfair his freshman year, where you make friends for life. We don’t know if during his sophomore year he had trouble making friends, or even if the people at Panther Online even bother to talk to him. But right now, he has 500 friends on Facebook, and is single.