This is Me - Cookie Conglomerate
This is a post included in the This is Me series where I answer 1001 questions about myself as writing practice. Each post consists of me answering 5 questions about myself. Wanna share what you would answer to any or all of the questions? Do it in the comments section!
WHAT IS YOUR HAPPIEST MEMORY FROM CHILDHOOD?
One of my dads claim to fame was making an entire batch of cookie dough and then not making any actual cookies...just eating the entire batch of raw cookie dough...which, I mean, can you blame him? Don't fret...he's still alive, the raw eggs didn't take him out! His other claim to fame was making one giant cookie out of the entire batch of cookie dough. For some reason a lot of my childhood centers around making chocolate chip cookies and hey, I'm not mad about it.
For some reason, at one point in maybe the third or fourth grade, I took a bag of our famous chocolate cookies to school with me. Being the kind of kid who was looking to be popular person that I was, I shared my delicious treats with my friends.
Some kids were so enamored with my amazing cookies, they requested I bring more. By golly, they would even give me one, maybe two dollars for their OWN bag of cookies.
Being the brilliant entrepreneur that I was at 9 years old, I decided, "you know what would make these cookies even more sellable ?"
That's right...food coloring.
Ladies and gentleman I could not keep up with the orders.
I'd spend my days learning about sentence structure and dividing decimal points and my nights were spent slaving over a hot stove, mixing up dough, adding a few drops of food coloring and packing up my bags for sale.
I'm pretty sure that it was my mom who put a stop to the madness once I started asking her if we could buy the 15lb bag of flour instead of the normal one and could we go to Price Club (now Costco) to get the larger bags of chocolate chips.
My cookie conglomerate dreams came to an end, but the memory of my classmates eyes lighting up in the delight when receiving their bag of blue chocolate chip cookies will live on forever.
WHAT MEMENTOS OF THE PAST HAVE YOU KEPT OVER THE YEARS?
I am uniquely suited to answer this question given that I have had to pack up all of my earthly goods and move them from side to side in the country for the past ten years.
The items that make it every time are in a few different bins and I likely will never part with them. Yearbooks, photo albums, memorabilia from high school Drill Team and stuff rom my Chi-Omega days as well as the 5 or so Franklin Covey three ring binders where I documented what happened every single day of my life for around 5 years or so.
Yes I realize how nerdy that sounds but I also know that now that you are thinking about that more, you are kind of wishing you had done that too.
DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF TO BE SELF-CONFIDENT?
Yes. See below.
WHAT IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH SELF-CONFIDENCE?
Self Confident : trusting in one's abilities, qualities, and judgment.
When I was around 10 and we would order a pizza for delivery, nothing would make me immediately have something urgently important to attend to in my room with the door locked than my mom asking me to call in to place the order.
When I was around 24 and was ordering food for delivery I would tell them my apartment number was 36DD to get a laugh.
I attribute the former story to my introverted nature that is uncomfortable with novelty situations that are not under my control. What if they ask me a question I don't know the answer to? Do we want mushrooms? Do we not? Do I even remember my address? What if they stump me with some question out of left field and I'm left to die of embarrassment right there in the hallway? I also was 10 so I'm sure that had something to do with it.
As I've gotten older I'm still uncomfortable with novelty situations, but I have years of experience with dealing with those situations and NOT dying of embarrassment so my confidence levels have increased dramatically.
I have learned over the years what I know and most importantly what I don't know, and having the humility to admit the latter presents itself as confidence.
HAVE YOU EVER HAD A SECOND HOME?
You could take this question two ways. Is the second home like a literal 2nd mortgage? Or is it the more broad..."this place always felt like a second home to me....a place where I feel fully relaxed and comfortable just like I do in my own house"?
The answer is yes to both questions actually (#flex) but I will expound on the second. My grandmas house always felt like a second home to me even though it was very stuffy and reeked of cigarette smoke and almost none of the rooms were used because my grandma basically lived in the kitchen and living room.
My grandma babysat me a lot when I was a kid and when I would go over she would plop me down in the den and put The Sound of Music on. I would watch it literally every time I went over. My grandma never asked us to ring the bell when we came over, we would just walk right in, which to me always felt strange but she never minded. She would always greet us with her thin smile when we would walk into the kitchen un-announced and say, "hello there" and would wave at us to grab a seat. I always felt welcome, I never felt like a bother, I knew I could help myself to a drink or a snack or the candy dish by the door. I felt I could be myself and so it was a place I always considered a second home.
