So this is it, the final nutshell.

    So this is it, the final nutshell.  Its hard to even figure out what to say given that I’ve only really been writing this for one semester.  I’m a food nerd, however if you have read my column this semester you already knew that.  But given my pending graduation my thoughts have become rather reflective and I’ve taken some time to think about the person I am and the person I want to become.  Looking back at what it took to make the person I am now I think it is safe to say  it has been all about family.

    Growing up I think I can count on one hand the number of meals I ate at home without my immediate family. On school days my entire family was often out the door and on our way by 7 a.m.

    However, that didn’t stop my parents from insisting that my sister and I sit down at the breakfast table with them, and discuss plans for the day and eat a simple but healthy breakfast. Before heading out the door my sister and I would grab our lunch box, filled with a homemade lunch and my personal favorite part a note written on our napkin with a different sticker every day.

     I think it was the note and the sicker, not the food itself, which made lunchtime something to look forward to. Dinner was very much the same situation as breakfast, the whole entire family sitting down to a meal together. 

    Often my parents would cook together and once my sister and I were old enough it was not uncommon for one of us to put together the salad while the other poured the drinks. Then we would all sit down together and discuss everything from grades, boys, my dad’s job (something none of us understand even today) or my mom’s tales of the classroom. The sad thing is that as a child I never fully appreciated what my parents were giving me by insisting I participate in all of these family oriented meals. 

    They were giving me memories and a family support that was stronger than any of our other activities.     They were also giving me yet another reason to appreciate food and its ability to bring the people I love together and for the duration of the meal at least, pretend the outside world had just faded away. Growing up with the family meals being stressed in this way, I suppose only natural for me to translate that appreciation to the actual food itself and become the food nerd I am today.

    I know it is approaching a cliché to say that food brings people together, but every aspect of my childhood has shown me that this is true. And the reasoning behind this is simple.  Everyone eats, therefore it might be the one unifying thing besides breathing that we all have in common. So it is only natural that this should be one of the easiest things for people to talk about and bond over. It has certainly proven true in my family.  I was always so frustrated with how my parents insisted I come out of my room or stop playing just to eat with them.   I feel the need to apologize for all the times I yelled at them citing that “none of my friends’ families do this,” as my only excuse.  It amazes me that they continued to insist we all eat dinner together given the arguments both my sister and I presented every night.
  I suppose the ultimate irony of the situation is I am now the one insisting on cooking dinner for my family when I come home from college. I’m sure they get a great kick out of how upset I get when people don’t come home for dinner or when my sister elects to go to the movies instead of sitting down with the rest of us. I owe everything I am today to my parents and for, as simple as it sounds, making me eat breakfast and making me come home for dinner.  The future I desire is in front of me because of the values they instilled in me as a child and I can’t imagine where I would be headed  were it not for their insistence that I simply sit down with them and eat.

     Eliza Stinneford can be contacted at estinneford@keeneequinox.com.