Life in a box... cooking

I grew up in a really small town south of Dallas. When I was there we had hardly anything, no Walmart, no McDonald’s(until senior year) and just a few stop lights. There was not much to do and work was hard to find for a teenager.

But when I was 15 I got my license and my dad gave me a lawn mower so I could start a lawn mowing business. Me and few other guys tried it but it didn’t workout. I found myself sitting at the table of the only BBQ restaurant in town and a staple to when I grew up. It was there that the lady in charge offered me a job as a dishwasher and I took it. I was making $5.15 an hour and going to work after I got out of school. I would wash dishes and clean tables, then do odd little jobs now and then. I’d never cooked hardly anything up until that point.

One day they talked to me about moving up and helping cook on the back, burgers, fried, CFS, and other items. That’s when I developed a pure love for cooking. I soon progressed up to making the BBQ sauce and putting the briskets and other meat in the smoker and getting a really flow of things. By this time I was working over 40 hours a week and developing what would be a life long passion. If fact I was going to head to culinary school after college but I didn’t want to be a fancy chef so I backed out. (Huge mistake!) I semi regret that choice to this day.

By the time I was done and ready to move I had grandiose plans today own my own restaurant by the time I was 30. Life circumstances kept me from doing that but the love for food and cooking stuck. There is something about making food for people that happiness and joy they get from it that completes me. I still plan to own a small restaurant when I get older and my kids are gone, that way I don’t risk failing when I have them relying on me.

Thankfully my passion and love for cooking has manifesting in my kids somewhat. Faith in particular really likes to cook and she’s really good at it. It warms my heart that she enjoys to cook. I pray it stays with her and she keeps learning to make new things knowing that she will fail from time to time.

If I could never cook again it would break me, I would be lost. I hope that her future turns out better than mine because at 13 she’s already better than I was and much better at baking than I am.

Follow your dreams... even if they take you places you never thought you’d go.