Life: An Acquired Taste

This past year has been a roller coaster of physical, mental, and emotional moments. I am not explaining all of this for your pity. I am explaining it to show how incredible our God is. It began two and a half weeks after my third ACL reconstruction surgery. For the first four months, rehab and physical therapy went amazingly well. My doctor and PT were convinced that my ACL would hold this time around. In April, I was cleared to start running and jumping again. I was ecstatic. It had been over a year since I had been able to do anything like that. However, about the same time, something in my knee began to catch and cause pain and once again I was forbidden to do anything that would that pain happen. During the next four months, it went from an occasional problem to realizing something major was happening. It reached the point where I couldn’t even ride an exercise bike (which is one of the first exercises of rehab) because of the pain it caused. After being treated for tendo...

People hold an incredible influence on our lives. When someone takes notice of you, it means the world. When someone walks out of your life, it feels like the world is ending. Years ago, a friend walked out of mine, for seemingly no reason at all. There was no warning and no explanation. It has shaped how I make friends and how I keep them. I am reluctant to allow them in and it hurts to let them go. But through this all, I have seen how God has used it. He has brought me to the point where I realized He was the only friend I needed. He showed me that no one will be here forever. God has used this one person to shape me, even without being a physical part of my life. Just a few weeks ago, something absolutely incredible happened. This friend is going to be getting married. In the midst of things, we ended up seeing each other for the first time in years. She sat down and apologized for everything. It took me completely by surprise. Through our years apart, God has been doing an am...

Food isn’t just about sustenance. It is a journey, a memory, a moment. Think of your favorite dish. The way it looks, smells, and tastes. For me, my favorite dishes remind me of childhood memories; Sunday afternoons with my mom, kid’s nights, and cooking with my siblings. There is one dish that takes me back to a summer Sunday afternoons. Football is on in the background and I’m finally tall enough to help my mom make the weekly Sunday dessert. Microwave Chocolate Pudding. As odd as it sounds, this dish taught me more about cooking than you might think, like how cornstarch has to have a cold liquid mixed in and then boiled for it to thicken. My mom would let me help her as soon as I was tall enough to see over the counter. By the time I could reach the microwave, she would let me make it all by myself.  My mom can make this recipe right every time. I, on the other hand, have a little more trouble with it. Ever since I was old enough to make it, it came out lumpy. Even now, with tr...

Time flies when you’re looking and moves even faster when you aren’t. As a child, everyone looked ahead. Whether it was toward Christmas or college, we all anticipated, worked toward, and dreamed about the future, about what was to come. Children don’t stop and think about how great they have it, or how hard the future may be. Time seems to take forever to pass. They see the hope of a lifetime stretched before them. Today or rather yesterday now, I turned twenty-one. I’m officially not a child anymore. As I think about the last twenty-one years (or at least the ones I remember), I realize everything I have learned, whether I wanted to or not. There were a ton, but here’s a short list thoughts: Your siblings will be your worst enemies, but also your best friends if you let them Having a large family teaches you how to make and keep friends If you have what you need, not what you want, you are blessed Take a moment and be thankful for what you have Technology can never replace i...

For those of you who don’t know, I had my 3 rd ACL reconstruction surgery last December. The last several months, my knee has been bothering me again and slowly feeling worse. I had an MRI taken on Tuesday, and this morning we met with my doctor, Dr. D’Alessandro ( Check out his experience ) . He informed us that my ACL is torn again. You know it’s going to be interesting when your doctor is puzzled. Dr. D explained that he only sees this happen in females when they are college soccer players. There has been nothing in the last nine months to cause it to tear again. Before we make any decisions on surgery or anything, Dr. D is having me go to another doctor, Dr. Piasecki ( And his too ) . Once we have the second opinion, they will bring up my case at their next monthly doctor’s panel to hear what other doctors have to say. So far, here are my options: Wear a knee brace forever to help with stability, but deal with the pain Have arthroscopic surgery to clean out cartilage f...

What are you really learning? I finished up summer classes today and started to think about what I had learned this summer. I loved learning in my classes, but God was teaching me something other than baking most of the time. Here is just a little food for thought: Finals. Summer finals. These words will make anyone who has had to take a summer class cringe. They are finals for classes that were about 1/3 shorter than a normal semester. Where else will you find a class that the final lab practical is worth 35% and the written final is worth 20% of your final grade? Think that through. 55% of your grade in two days. You better hope one of those isn’t an under par day. Unfortunately for me, one of those days was bad. However, God does have a purpose for everything. Do we always see it? No. Rarely do we see why immediately, sometimes we see it later on in life, often we never see it. This time, though, God decided to use this as a sort of slap to the face. I do not want to just pass,...

Life. One thing about it that I never am ready for is how fast it moves. It seems like just last week I was moving to Greenville to start culinary school. However, last month I graduated from it. On a side note, I'm taking classes to complete my Baking and Pastry certificate. Also, my younger seester, Anna, graduated from high school in May. It's crazy to think that my baby sister is graduated and getting ready for college, but I am super excited because she is going to be moving to Greenville to attend Greenville Tech for cosmetology! We are looking into renting an apartment in the area. Finally, my oldest sister, Becky, graduated from Southwest Community College in Tennessee. This summer I'm taking two summer classes. Each class is 14 lab hours a week. The first is Plated Desserts. Each week, we are on teams of two, and make a main component for the plate (cake, mousse, ice cream, etc), a sauce, and a garnish. Before coming to class, we are supposed to dra...