“Chomp, smack, chomp, smack” is all I hear when people are eating. The sound of loud eating makes me cringe -- I feel a sense of rage overcome me when I am sitting with someone who smacks their food. It may seem trivial to most, but I squirm every time someone eats too loudly.

Why can’t they just chew with their mouth closed, I wonder. It is a simple task, really. The food is supposed to go inside your mouth, after all. But every time I sit down to eat, there is always someone who makes noise as they chow down.

One of the worst, in my opinion, is gum. People just tend to sit back and smack their gum without even thinking about it. But, the noise ends up being unbelievably loud.  I know I shouldn’t be rude and ask the person to please just, please, close their mouth. So I sit there. Sometimes, I will stare at the person’s mouth, hoping they will get the hint, but they never do. I listen to the “smack, smack, smack,” and I cannot get it out of my head. I focus on the sound, and it amplifies it even more. 

Soup -- another killer. Too many times have I sat down at the dinner table only to hear “slurp, slurp, slurp” as I am attempting to enjoy my meal. I sit uncomfortably in my seat, twisting and turning until I finally just want to yell, “PLEASE shut your mouth.” But I don’t yell, and I sit there, in agony, waiting. Waiting until my meal is done so I do not have to listen to the slurping anymore. Waiting until I can finally leave the table because sometimes, it feels a little like torture.

I just need to remind myself to not get too frustrated. Most people, after all, are not doing it on purpose. Yet I wonder, what if I just tell them one time to chew quietly? But, then I remember that it is my own personal issue. At least I don’t have to hear it twenty--four/seven, right?