When I was a kid, I didn’t like to help in the kitchen much. Only when i grew up an adolescent, I found out it was because the kitchen was too cozy for me. Perhaps, people in the kitchen back then that made me feel that way. Um-mm, no, we are not going that route. That is a tale for another time.
Today story is about peeling a hard boiled egg, or many of them I might add. Peeling an egg was my most favorite thing to do and still an enjoyable activity I’d rather spend in any kitchen. Here I tell you why.
It was not an easy thing to do for a 5-year-old me. Indeed it was quite a challenge at first. It took me a considerable 10 minutes for the first egg. Guess what, there were 20 more to go. “No pressure” of course, I remembered my grandma’s look when she handed me the task. It was quite daunting. Years later I knew it’s called responsibility. She went on and told me there is no trick in peeling a hardboiled egg given that it was done properly. Cracking the shell gently, picking the right spot and starting to peel off the broken pieces of calcium, I struggled with the thin skin layer that didn’t come off together with the outer shell. I broke a piece of egg white in the process but I kept going. My first peeled boiled egg looked ugly, even when it was almost intact, only a small hole as big as a lentil. The rest was impeccable. I called it ugly alright because I created it. It was almost convincing the egg hurt from that lentil-size wound. My grandma said it was an fresh egg that make it harder for me to peel. My translation was they are young and suffering harder from my handy work. While she was fine with some messy and torn eggs, I realized I can’t let my impatience ruin the perfectly smooth shiny egg white surface. I had to concentrate while relaxing my hand to take care of the hard boiled egg.
The beauty of imperfection is naturally worthless. It reflects one of the bases of being a human. I didn’t seek perfection when I was trying to peel a hard boiled egg flawlessly. When an adult, I reckoned it was me practicing acting a grown up when peeling eggs: taking responsibilities to accomplish a task against what being told. Also like an original, I did dramatize and put liveliness and trap feelings to everything in the whole process. There would be thousands of stories or memories about peeling hard boiled eggs. There are tricks to make it work beautifully. So what the story of this story? You must figure out by now this is essentially not about peeling an egg. This is about writing a story of yours that reflects the person of who you are and who you have grown up to. Simple as that. I have countless more to tell. How about you?
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