One thing I have come to understand in life is that we are all wired differently. Growing up I did not like to cook, no scratch that, I hated anything that had to do with the kitchen.
Write about your first experience with something significant (e.g., Voting, traveling solo, public speaking, etc).
Everyone in my family was concerned because I was going to be a wife and mother in the future but I knew nothing about cooking, except making noddles and making cereals馃槀馃槀
You know the typical family setting where the girl child is taught and prepared to be a good wife and mother in the future so she can be a homemaker and a good cook to her husband and children, while the male child is allowed to play and have fun. No one teaches him how to make money or prep him up for his husband and fatherly roles in the future.
My elder sister was a good cook so it was so easy for me to escape the tons of lessons my Aunt taught her, it was easy to have what to eat readily available because she was the first child and first daughter of the family, so she literally did all the cooking with my Aunt and oh boy she did the job perfectly and I was at the sidelines cheering her on instead of learning馃槀馃槀
As a teenager I was a bit mischievous, I鈥檇 always pretend to be sick whenever my family was on a cooking spree during weekends, once they fell for my trick I would be exempted from everything. It got to a point where my kid sister started learning the ropes. She could go to the market and prepare simple meals while I the biggest cheerleader of the house would cheer her on馃槀馃槀 now that I think about it I feel so ashamed馃槀
It kept happening for a long time until my elder sister had to leave for college and that鈥檚 when she handed over the mantle of leadership to me, how do you hand over the mantle of leadership to someone who knew nothing about cooking?
My family was ready to make a mockery of me because they knew I didn鈥檛 know jack about cooking. I started paying my kid sister to help cook whenever my Aunt instructed me to cook for the house whenever she was unavailable. So my sister was perfecting her cooking skills as well as making money while I was there feeling like the smarty pants that I was.
My Aunt and Dad were happy that I was learning how to cook little did they know what was going on behind the scenes.
This kept happening until A relative of ours came to visit for a few weeks and this woman needed me to cook, she didn鈥檛 go out like my Dad and Aunt and she always liked to go to the kitchen. It was so hard for me that period, I couldn鈥檛 hang in there for a long time as she discovered I didn鈥檛 know how to cook and that it was my kid sister that was helping me out.
My Dad and Aunt were surprised at the news as they had always thought I was the one making all the meals that they usually had whenever my Aunt was not around to cook.
This particular Lady was so blunt, she did not filter her words as she said a lot of not-so-nice things to me and also laughed at me, I felt so ashamed, my ego was bruised, and I was hurt.
At that point, I needed to tell myself the truth that I was going to suck at being a wife and a mother if I didn't sit up.
Being all sad and tired of her constantly picking on me, I begged my dad to take me to my cousin's house for the long vacation and surprisingly he agreed.
I recounted the whole story to my cousin and begged her to teach me how to cook. My cousin was 5 years older than me so she was well-experienced when it came to cooking and cooking was her hobby.
I started learning the ropes even when I was getting a hang of it I was too scared to give it a try. My cousin kept encouraging me that it was okay to try and fail but wrong not to try at all but I was still afraid to cook.
Getting over my fear was so hard, in my head I knew all the recipes and steps to take but getting to work was a big problem.
I took a leap of faith one day when my Aunt told me my dad was coming to visit them and that was the first day I made a proper meal, I didn't make noodles or cereals like I usually did I made a proper meal for my father and he was stunned. He still didn't believe I was the one that prepared the food because of the different stunts I had pulled back at home, it took much convincing from my cousin and her Mum for him to believe and he was so happy.
To date, it鈥檚 so hard for my Dad to believe that I can cook because I hated cooking and I had to learn it a bit late.
While I continued my cooking journey I was so shy of letting people taste my food because I felt I learnt how to cook very late and my meals were not yummy enough. It took so much to get rid of this fear. Now I can boldly say that my meals are delicious and every day I am learning new things in the culinary world馃グ馃グ
All images are mine except otherwise stated.
