On the Brink
Did you know, at age 18, what you wanted to be when you “grew up”? And now that you are grown up, are you doing whatever it was you thought you wanted to do – you knew for dead certain you wanted to do — when you were 18?
I ask because Lizzie just started a two-year culinary program with a specialization in patisserie. And I had this vision of her, in five years, making signature desserts for some amazing, serious-about-food-but-not-snotty, quirky-but-not-terminally-hip restaurant. In the Northwest, of course. Maybe even in Eugene. I’m thinking Whitaker district, right next to the Ninkasi Brewery. (My visions are pretty specific.)
And then I had a vision of her behind the counter of her own bakery. In these post-cupcake times, where you can get artisan bread at Safeway (sort of), I wonder what her specialty will be. She’ll have one, I know. She’ll have brought back ideas from her culinary tour of Europe. (Alas, I will be impressed into service as companion and note-taker. Such is the drudgery of being a trailing Mom.) Whatever it is her bakery specializes in, it will be irresistible and addictive and eminently tweetable. Yelpers will be falling all over each other praising its deliciousness. A charming, quirky video of her business, shot and produced by her brother Jackson with animation by her brother Zane will go viral, thus simultaneously catapulting her brand to national status and the boys’ careers to stardom. I will be asked to head the bakery’s Mediterranean operation, establishing culinary partnerships in Italy, Spain, Greece and the south of France. (Impressed into service once again.)
Or, on the other hand… five years from now she may be a firefighter or in the midst of veterinary school or coaching girls’ track or couch-surfing the globe. Because who really knows, at 18, what she will be at 25 or 45 or 65? Isn’t it wonderful that we get to grow and change and change again, invent and re-invent ourselves, have second and third acts, and even encores? I watch Lizzie on the brink of it, and I’m so excited for her. I can’t wait to see what happens.
