So, I sit here, eating mincemeat tarts and playing Spider Solitaire when I have a Bio101 test tonight that I am nowhere ready for (typical student?) and I start to think about Saturday. Yes, Saturday is Valentine's Day, big deal. I'm cooking dinner that night, a Beef Au Voir with honeyed carrot salad and some sort of risotto, finished with a French Berry cheesecake. It sounds way more complicated than in reality.
What comes to my mind is a simple question. I graduate this fall (YAY!) and my plan the last year and a half has been to attend culinary school. This is where the question comes in: is that really what I want to do?
I know I am not the only college student that wonders this, probably most do, unless they have already lined something up after graduation. I know that I love to cook, but does that mean I want to go to school for it, or make it my life? I believe that all people on earth have a purpose to fulfill, a reason to be alive, and it's discovering what that purpose is that turns us into the people we are.
Which brings me to my next question: what is the difference between a dream and reality? As a child, I dreamed of playing in the NBA, shot baskets in the corn shed, dreamt I was hitting the game winning shot over Michael Jordan, and to me at the time, it was reality. As I got older, it became apparent that this was not going to become reality and I moved on. So was I wrong to dream this?
I dream of cooking in a restaurant I may or may not own, traveling the world, learing how to cook from the actual regions rather than the books. Frankly, I don't have a backup plan because this is what I hope to do, but is this reality? Do moments of self-doubt show that maybe this isn't what I want, a warning to not go down that path?
There is no easy answer, just hope that for once I am in reality and not another dream.
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That meal sounds delicious! I often watch Hell's Kitchen with Chef Ramsey and they cook risotto all the time. I think culinary school would be very exciting even if you decided not to make a career out of it. Don't give up on your dreams...I mean you have to at least give it a chance to find out if it is right for you...Right? Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteHey, how come I wasn't invited to dinner? Sounds yummy!
ReplyDeleteI know someone who is in culinary school in Florida. His wife sends me pictures of his luscious concoctions...he loves it!
Who of us knows what our destiny is? I spent 30 years trying NOT to teach and look where I am! Who was it who said that, often, we meet our destinies in the paths we take to outrun them? When you know, you know. Until then, don't obsess about it.
But I will say that you should do what makes you happy; otherwise, you're just working to live.
K. Smith
Eng. 226