Babies First Blog

***Originally Published May 6, 2023

One day in Middle School my parents left me home alone and said they would be back in a couple of hours. I had the bright idea to do something I had never done before, and my parents could not be home for it. 

The time limit drove my sense of urgency: I knew there was no room to hesitate.

I grabbed the onions, beans, ground turkey, salsa, tomato paste, and all of the spices out of the cupboard I’d need. 

I was going to cook a turkey chili all by myself. 

I had seen my mom make it countless times, and watched enough Chopped to know how to cook like a real Chef. 

So an hour later I had a plate with meat juice, a cutting board with onion scraps, an empty jar of salsa spilled halfway to hell with a spatula sticking out of it, a couple empty cans of beans, and a stove top covered in slowly burning bits and pieces of everything that had not quite made it in the pan. 

I also had a big pot of chili that tasted pretty decent--not nearly as good as when my mom made it, of course.

But not bad.

So I went and hid in my room waiting for my parents to come home. I felt like I had done something I shouldn’t do and that my chili was terrible and the meat was raw and my parents were gonna hate it and we would have to throw it all out. 

So I sat waiting in a little tight ball.

When my mom came in, she crouched down beside me holding a small bowl of the chili I had made.

“I see you made chili.”

“Is it good? I’m not sure if the meat’s cooked.”

“Yeah! It is good, it’s tasty. Nice job!”

Here is a bowl of chili for you. 

It’s my first blog post and so it feels too raw, bland, self-indulgent, and a far cry from what I think a blog post should be. 

But it’s my first one. 

I’m a little wiser now and know to be proud of what I've done, yet even more to be unsatisfied with the quality. To commit to improvement through time and discipline.

I’m starting this blog because I like to write and I’m good at it. 

Because I want to get better at writing.

Because I want to share things with my friends. 

Because I want to be vulnerable, honest, funny, loud, interesting, engaging, inspiring, and a little manic. 

I’ll share stories, talk about books or anime I love, discuss specific strategies I’ve used in my life and business that I’ve found success with, and I might even share some poetry. 

So read along if you’d like and follow my journey one little story at a time. 

For now, I am spending the next two weeks living with my grandparents in their condo in the suburbs of east Cleveland. Afterwards I plan to move to the New River Gorge in West Virginia to live out of a tent and my car. 

A few nights ago after my grandma washed my laundry and we sat on the couch watching Jeopardy. I turned my washed socks inside-in, and she made neat little piles with the matches. Then, so I wouldn’t just shove them all in my duffel, she got me a plastic “Brownberry” bag that was designed to hold 2 loaves of bread (for just One Price!) and another slightly thicker plastic bag--this one with handles and from Total Wine--to put the bread/sock bag in so they’d all be neatly double-packed away. 

I know they’re going to be a total mess less than a week into my camping trip when I either rummage through for the socks I want or just dump them all out in my car. But for now, I got a little self-contained sock storage package designed by my babushka.

Thanks for reading. See you next week 🙂

-Andy