A Plateful of Passion Fruit...Hold the Fruit.

I'm going to start this post off with a thought that struck me in the middle of class today.

 Because....

Yes, I usually have about 1,346 other thoughts floating around up there at any given time. I'll go into more detail on that later.

BACK TO THE TOPIC. In the middle of class today, I had an epiphany about a metaphor for my inner passions.

Enter Scene: June 2010, Katerini, Greece
After my sophomore year of college, I jumped on the AMAZING opportunity to study abroad for 3.5 weeks for my Capstone course at UNI. One of our last stops was the beautiful Katerini, Greece. This is a seaside paradise and our hotel was within a stone's throw of the beach. As you can imagine, traveling for so long with the same large group of people can take it's toll on a person. At this point of the trip I was feeling slightly homesick and just needed a little chunk of alone time. I decided to wake up super early and head out to watch the sunrise over the ocean. (Sounds like a dream, right? It was.)

So, nobody tell my mom because she will probably get really upset with me, but I ventured out ALONE in the darkness to the dock to sit and wait. As I sat, I took in my surroundings and waited what seemed like a long time for any sign of light.

(Yes, I used self-timer, don't judge me too hard..I was waiting for quite a while.)

Finally, a little light started to break on the horizon.

Now, I had never really been a big morning person. I have only seen a couple sunrises at most in my lifetime and they were in the Midwest, so I didn't know if they were, like, different. I say this because I thought this following picture was the sun fully risen. (Mainly, because I'm super impatient so I thought it had run its course because it took a while.)

I thought I could see it (the sun), it was just hidden behind the clouds/fog/mist! It kind of hoovered like this for a little while. Eventually, I started getting up to leave, thinking the show was over. I walked around and took a few more pictures:

Still gorgeous, right?

And then. IT HAPPENED.

Light pierced through that haze. It was strong, bright, and BEAUTIFUL. That morning was easily one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had in my entire life. 

After that, it rose and grew brighter in the blink of an eye.

I stood alone on that dock amazed at what had just happened before me. Obviously, I still carry that feeling with me today.

So, you may be wondering why I'm talking about this? Well, here it is.

Enter Scene: Bakery Lab, Kelsey's Brain (Lala-land)
I think we all have passion for many things. Some passion is faint, some is strong, and some is still undiscovered. Now, when I mentioned the metephor for my passions, this is what I meant.

I went to UNI for four years, and worked incredibly hard towards a degree in Interior Design. It was super time consuming, draining, and sometimes felt like the work would never end. It wasn't like other majors; you couldn't just wing a test or paper and get by. If you didn't finish a project, it was clearly evident you didn't finish it...there were no multiple choice answers you could just guess on. Because of this, I still firmly believe my 19 classmates and I couldn't have finished that degree without one thing. PASSION.  

I STILL have passion for design, it hasn't gone away. That is why I relate that passion for design toward the first photo that I thought was the 'real, full sunrise.' It's still beautiful, right? That photo still inspires me and is pleasing to the eye.

Sometimes it takes time to realize what we are passionate about. I will never lose that passion for design and I don't regret one minute of earning that degree! But my passion for Baking/Pastry Arts is like the second photo of the full-blown sunset. It's piercing, overwhelming, and I just can't deny it.

And you know what? I bet there are even more things I will become passionate about in my lifetime. I just hope everyone takes the opportunity at some point in their life to really chase that passion that sets their soul on fire. It's an incredible feeling that I just can't explain any further.

And, just to link this back to my other posts, this trip was a growing experience for me. It was that same summer I decided to take my first cake decorating class that I also decided to sign up for this trip. Alone. Traveling across the world not knowing anyone. But guess what? After signing up, I realized this girl that was in my major that I didn't know at all (we had just started our major-related classes so none of us knew each other yet) just so happened to be going on the same trip. We kind of got to know each other that next Spring semester in class but really bonded on this study abroad trip.

I now consider Nicole one of my life-long friends and I'm so glad I went on that trip and got to really know her. In that time, we also figured out we've lived 10 minutes from each other our whole lives! :) Kinda cool! 

Take chances, people. I can't say it enough!

Oh, you want to hear about classes?

Re-Enter Scene: Hospitality Arts Bakery Lab
 
Well...we started baking this week! My Bakery Essentials class is only 50 minutes so Chef has dedicated this week to learning the 12 steps of baking bread. Mind you, I've never baked actual bread in my life so I was kind of geeking out. So, each day we would work on a fresh batch of dough; the first day we scaled ingredients.

The second day we mixed and let it rise.

Then we practiced folding and let it rise more.

Isn't it pretty?! Kind of my little baby. We then practiced rolling it out into baguettes and twisting into Sicilian 'S' rolls before baking it.

 Yummy! Goes great with soup and for breakfast!

 This was merely an exercise to walk through the different steps of the baking process, but listening to him talk about all of the things we will be making in future classes this semester has me SO excited; I can't wait to share with you all.

My sanitation class is a lot of memorization and I managed a 100% on our first quiz! Afterward, I realized if I would've skipped the studying the night before I probably would've bombed it. The material is pretty common sense, but when it comes to specifics on food borne illnesses, you really have to have it down. I have to say, technology is a great thing. Since I didn't decide to start studying until 12:30 a.m. and I had no one to quiz me on my note cards, I asked Alex if I could type them out to him on Skype to help me study. I would type out the keyword and then have to fill in with my associations and then I would send it to him. I knew he wasn't reading them (Or at least I hope he wasn't because they should make NO sense to anyone outside of my brain) but it really helped me get it down just by tricking myself into thinking I was explaining it to someone else, even though I know he eventually went to sleep! Sometimes you just have to be creative with the resources you have and know what works for you!

My mathematics class has been beneficial so far! My professor is probably 87 years old and referred to his hearing aids as mechanical ears today, but he is so knowledgeable about so many things that I can't help but listen to every word he says. What's that you say, Kelsey? You pay attention through 90 minute math classes?! Yes, yes I do.

I'm sure If I wouldn't have had an epiphany about PASSION today, I would've written a lot more about my classes but like I said, I have a short attention span and I think that's enough for now.

Until next time; Have a splendid Friday-Sunday. I will be spending mine getting a new license, trying to replace everything I lost when I lost my wallet, and working. Never be too distracted that you forget your wallet in the seat of your cart in the middle of a rain-drenched Walmart parking lot on a Wednesday night in early February. That's a hypothetical situation, because obviously I wouldn't ever be so careless as to leave my WHOLE LIFE in the seat of a Walmart shopping cart. NOT ME!

-BB

P.S. By my next post, I MAY or may NOT have some exciting news to share..we shall see soon, hopefully!