12 Hours Of What?!!!!!

In the senior Humanities class called Endurance, we learned a lot of different things. We learned about how different people experienced mental or physical endurance from David Blane to Laura Dekker a young girl who sailed the world in two years alone by herself. Laura went through many mental and physical endurance on her journey from missing her father and family to her boat being destroyed. She to worry about the different dangers of pirates or the being no wind at all for her to get home or to her destination. Physical endurance meaning to do with the human body and the stress it has to deal with. Mental endurance meaning the stress of the mind and emotions. For this Action Project, we had to create a mission or challenge that we could carry out but we had to do 12 hours of this mission. I chose to do 12 hours of skating because I really want to learn and become the best I can be. This project gave me that chance to learn and do more but at my pace. This helped to explain to me what endurance really means when it comes to something that you really want.

                          AL" Endurance Video"(2018)
 

What Keeps Me Going.

In the Senior Humanities class called Endurance, we learned about visions and if they are worth pursuing. We learned about how people talk through their autobiographies. We learned about what we have to endure to we reach our dreams. We learned how to prepare for our journey as adults since my classmates and, I am going to be attending college this year and we will be on our own. We learned about our inner qualities and, how it helps us achieve our goals. We learned about how to plan for our future. This class helped us to grow as individuals we learned what is like to endure tough situations in school and outside of school. In the class endurance, we had a woman come in who used to run marathons. She told us about her training and her trials and tribulations. She told us about her past as runner in high school and how she continued to pursue her passion even when she left. For this Action Project, we wrote an autobiography about our life speaking as ourselves from 40 years in the future. I wrote about myself growing up in Stamford and then moving back to Chicago as the 9-year-old child till I entered college and eventually owned my restaurant chain.

AL

                                   

  The Love That Carried Me

                                                   

    Chapter 1: The Spark

                                                

                                                  AL, Food and Childhood (2018)

I was seven years old about to turn eight. My family and I had just moved from Ohio to Stamford, Connecticut. We had been living in Connecticut for a few months now. In Stamford, there is only one, the large mall with a movie theater. So EVERYONE goes to this, mall and I especially loved this mall. I especially loved the large red stairs that were in the middle of the mall. The same place where “Santa” came to visit and see the kids in Stamford. My father came to visit from Chicago and took me to go see a brand new movie called Ratatouille. My dad and I found the best seats far in the back, right in the center. This movie was the beginning to me starting my journey of interest of Culinary Arts.

 Little by little, I began to want to explore food and just making things. When I was 8 used to go to the bathroom and pretend like I was making some exquisite meal. This fantasy “meal” was just toothpaste or anything I could find in my bathroom at the moment. In real life, I would help my grandmother make small parts of dinner for Thanksgiving and Christmas meal. When I was 9 years old we moved back to Chicago because my mother’s sister died. Being a child I never understood why everyone was so sad. That was the first time I saw my brother cry, I told myself that I would make my family happy no matter what format it would be whether it was telling them jokes or making a few meals here and there. I learned to do little meals like spaghetti and chili from my grandmother and mother. The smell of chili powder and black pepper and salt mixed with onions and turkey meat would fill the house and my family and I would come together and sit and talk about our day and laugh at jokes that we told about people. My family became happier I was back in Chicago with all of my family together. 

The summer before my freshman year of high school, I went to a culinary camp, In at Kendall college. In this camp, I experienced many things from how to lead people in the kitchen to just knowing how to clean or prep my station for the meals I was going to cook. We wore a chef’s uniform from head to toe. I learned the basic knife cutting skills. I learned how to make stock from just leftover vegetable scraps. This camp taught me how to make the exact meal that was the name of the movie I saw when I was a young child--Ratatouille. We were taught how to cut vegetables this was a challenge. A lot of chefs have gotten their fingertips cut off from not paying attention to what they are doing. I had to learn to do the right technique and make sure I pay attention. 

Freshman year began and I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I was confused. I started to do things I never did. I would lie to my parents and go out with my friends instead of completing my work . I did this because I had been going through a deep depression that I was unaware of so instead of facing my problems I just went out with friends and did no work. I got to so distracted by my friends that I stopped caring about my grades and my future just so I could please my friends, in the end, I am not even friends with most of the kids I used to hang out with back then.

 I left my school 2 weeks before my 15 birthday. I was home schooled for what felt like a long time. I finally ended up going to a new school where I had to make new friends. This school brought new challenges into my life from dealing with my first love to maybe having senior prom. This school blossomed my love for culinary again after I took a culinary class my junior year of high school, we had a cooking contest we had to make tacos and salsa as well as guacamole. My best friend Ra and my friend Isaiah where in my group we called ourselves RIA. We made our tacos using turkey meat. I seasoned the turkey meat with black pepper and salt and let the spices feel the room with there spicy aroma making my classmates sneeze. and helped them season the guacamole and make the salsa. We ended up winning the contest I felt so proud. 

Junior and senior year had to be the hardest years mentally for me. I realized those years that it was better to keep to myself than risk telling people things that are emotional for me. Junior year was the start of my journey for looking colleges that would best fit me. I dreamed and dreamed of going back to New York to live. I wanted to attend college the only thing stopping me was my family and friends. I am the type of person to put people ahead of me and my needs. I made the decision to stay in Chicago one so that I could be with family and to because I was in love with one of my close friends, even though at the time I never really thought I could be cliche and fall in love. After high school I went to, Robert Morris University one of the top five culinary schools, for the two years of my college life I attended this school. I went to the culinary competitions. I tried my best and I did so many of these competitions. Each time I got better and better at what I was doing until I won the competitions. I made my way up the ladder until I was competing with CIA. The Culinary Institute of America. This college CIA is the most dreamed about school in most chef’s lives everyone wants to go there. I competed with them over and over again until I won. 

My mother was a med student in residency trying to become a doctor with two kids. She is my role model and always will be. She struggled so much and inspired me to never give up she went to class and even had side jobs and still had time to take care of me and my older brother. She worked 12-hour shifts and taught me how to read and write. She struggles with the same things school and her personal life. I couldn’t choose between hanging out with my friends and doing good in school. My mom had to choose between being around all the time and going and getting her job done. She was home when she needed to be and at school when she needed to be. I learned to do the same thing and got further in life. 

Those competitions are the reasons I am where I am now. I am a successful business owner. My restaurant is in more than 40 states and, it’s in parts of the United Kingdom and more. I even make food for the famous rap groups and clothing designers as well. I am married I have two kids and, they are going through the same things as I was back then. I remember those hard times being sad or stressed or really depressed and, I had so many people around me that wanted to help me get through it but I wouldn’t trust them. I became who I am because I worked hard and climbed the later to the top. I have had my hard times with my aunt dying to me moving away from friends and family and even heartbreak. Everyone has will go through those times. In the end, I made the choice to choose the right path and most of my dreams came true. I am soon going to retire and help find new types of fish and coral reefs. I have always loved the water since I was little. One of the only places I am completely comfortable in. I am free to do whatever I want and, I can spend my time and discover new things and make more friends as I go.