Competition Submission – Gratitude

Half baked. The flavor of vanilla and chocolate taste like the sun. It Tasted like the hot days spent laying by the pool with my closest friends. Our multicolored plastic cups full of ice cream in hand. A recurring taste I have experienced every summer for the last ten years. Though through the years we have changed, the flavor of chocolate fudge and cookie dough chunks remains. Every scoop is unique. Some might have more vanilla overruling the chocolate flavor and others might have just one more cookie dough chunk than the others. Despite this, every scoop still comes from the same pint, the same place. As people on the same earth, it is more of a matter of what we make of opportunities for change. If you at least try one bite from every cup you can learn that even if you prefer the cup with more vanilla than the one with more chocolate, differences, and change can be good for the soul and our well-being. Having friends who I have shared this same flavor with for years has opened my eyes and helped me have these realizations. One friend might like that cup with more vanilla. So I will try that cup and will continue to take bites from the other cups to help open my eyes and thoughts to new experiences. The difference in the ice cream does not change the fact that they are all the same flavor. Separated into scoops the origin of the ice cream will always be connected. With each bite, a new chunk is discovered. Before taking that bite the unknown of what chunk will appear next is impossible to tell. But, taking one bite is the only way to get to the next. So I will take that bite, because taking that bite and not liking it is better than never taking it in the first place. With my future and my growth, I will continue to remain half-baked, not complete, so I can forever have that room to grow.