Today,
this little number is putting the ROUGH in “rough draft.” Please enjoy.
Also, I think I tooted
my own horn waaaay too hard; please forgive my apparent arrogance. But how does one brag with subtlety and finesse?
Somebody teach me!
...................................................
The
tortilla glared menacingly at me like a blistering eye. My hands froze as my
gaze shifted anxiously to my partner, silently imploring him for help. He gets
the message. I shrank helplessly to the side, watching his confident fingers
rescue my drowning dish. Tortilla. Cheese. Chicken. He fluidly combines the
ingredients together, finally folding it over to reveal a perfect, golden
quesadilla, ready to serve to the expectant customer. Defeated, I remain in my
isolated corner of the kitchen, praying for the end of a lunch rush that could
not come soon enough. It was the summer before my junior year, and the Culinary
Arts class I had enrolled in was proving more challenging than I had
anticipated.
This failure came as an abrupt slap
to the face. In most academic and extracurricular pursuits I can hold my own. Over
the years, with Honors and AP courses, track and field, my art, seven years of
piano, basketball, theatre, I feel relaxed and confident. Responsibility and
work ethic define me. Whether I like it or not, I always tend to gravitate
towards a leadership role in any group project. Why? Because people trust me to
get the job done, and get it done well.
Indeed, success and I were old pals.
Yet here I was, bested by a bit of melted dairy and dough. I felt so
inadequate, so useless, so far outside my comfort zone. It was going to be an
arduous four weeks, to say the least.
Thankfully, I had friends and
teachers who encouraged me not to give up. We would be running the restaurant for
another two weeks, with plenty of opportunities to seek instruction and improvement.
The circumstances pushed me to perform unfamiliar tasks and work with new
people; everyday was its own unique challenge to overcome.
It all came down to one moment. It
was the day I was assigned to beef stir fry with three other girls. The
restaurant was particularly packed, and of course our dish was the favorite meal.
The first few orders began rolling in.
The kitchen was chaos. All around us
people were busily preparing their own food, rushing about; the metallic
clanging of pans against stoves echoed noisily through the confusion. We were not
moving fast enough. Disorganized and overwhelmed, we were backed up with
orders. Chef kept yelling at us to pick up the pace, and I couldn’t take it any
longer.
I turned to our girl who was working the
stove. “Can you handle cooking with two pans at once?” Without a word, she
shook her head. I saw my own fearful panic reflected in her eyes, wide as
saucers. But then something came over me. It was almost instinct; a sense of
authority and perfect clarity settled around me. I became hyper focused as everything
that needed to be accomplished for the dish flashed through my mind.
“Okay, I’ll do it.” I was a force of
nature. I grabbed the pans and rapidly assigned each girl a roll. All other
distractions faded to oblivion. My partners did as I asked, tentative hands and
uncertainty yielding to a growing confidence. Like a well-oiled machine we
produced gorgeous displays of intoxicating food. The kitchen was my domain, and
I had never felt so alive. It truly was a glorious feeling of warmth and
satisfaction.
That Culinary Arts class was truly a
milestone in my mental development. I learned that a fear of failure cannot
champion me. The class taught me that I can flourish even while working in
high-pressure and unfamiliar situations. Furthermore, I used to not always be
the most social. However, being forced to work with total strangers shattered
my boundaries and opened me up to such interaction that I have come to enjoy
and love. It has radically enhanced my academic experience, affording me new friends
across secondary that got to know me on a more personal level. Indeed, they
eventually trusted me enough to overwhelmingly vote me into office as Treasurer
for the Associated Student Body, a position with great monetary responsibility.
As my high school career draws to a bittersweet close, I know now that I am
ready to take on any challenge life throws my way. I can only believe that God
has great things planned for my future, and I wait with eager anticipation to
see where His path will take me.
