Wanted a Cake; Got Some Brownies.

Life. The glorious thing we're all living right now. Whether we see it as an opportunity to strive for success or morn in our losses, we're living it right now. Most of us, including myself, we're living the "dream" because we're in college. 

College is the place where we discover who we are and who we set out to be. Now, I'll admit, most of us are the stage of still discovering who we are as individuals (mainly by experimenting with our free time, the people of whom we surround ourselves with and simply what we're studying). College; it's a tricky place. It's even more tricky if you've been so tunnel-visioned and goal oriented these past few years. I myself, am not an exception.

We all establish goals within a reasonable timeline that allows us to successfully accomplish said goals; it'd be more than bogus to simply say, "I want to graduate with 3 majors and a minor in 4 years" without any rational/logical planning--it's not something you just do. Plans have to be made to reach any goal that logically would take time. That being said,

 most of us come to college with an idea, or a "plan" of what 
we want to study and what we want to be 
when we "grow up".  

I remember when I was younger, my mother was attempting to show me how to bake (I say attempting because, even now, I promise I can't bake or cook to save my life). She handed me the recipe, and really just let me go at it. I've watched her bake cakes numerous times before; she was one of those mothers who made my birthday cake every year, decorated it, and pretty much the best baker ever.[ Yeah, go ahead and be jealous. ] So, as any 9 year old, I took this as a challenge.

I grabbed the eggs, the oil, the flower, the cocoa, a baking powder of some sort, some vanilla, and all the other goods, and went at it. Mixed the dry ingredients. Added the eggs, oil and vanilla. I was feeling mighty proud. By the time the batter was all nice and blended, I was then granted permission to pour it into a crayon shaped cake pan (as a kid, I thought these pans were magical). 

Now, we waited. I was looking forward to frosting this cake-- I mean, who doesn't like to secretly lick the spatula after baking a cake and frosting it?! After seemingly weeks of waiting, my creation had been complete. I heard that "tick tick tick tick DING". I was practically staring down the timer, waiting to be able to shout, "MOM!!! The cake is done!!" Being only 9 years old, mother had to take it out of the oven.

And so she did. And to my dismay, there wasn't a fluffy crayon-shaped chocolate cake. In front of my distressed, somber eyes laid a flat, broken-down and burnt looking cardboard catastrophe! I didn't quite understand why all of that hard work of taking on this challenge to bake this cake, had failed. My mother giggled as if it were alright and I was being my usual drama-queen 9-year old self...

"Brownies".

I kid you not. That's all it was. I had made BROWNIES. I wasn't mad. Brownies are still delicious. I ate them as quickly as I would have had eaten a cake. 

To this day, I'm not sure if I used the wrong baking  ingredient (baking powder vs baking soda) because I am not a professional (or amateur) in the kitchen, or if my mother simply gave me the wrong recipe or if I misinterpreted what I was actually going to be making. Regardless, I laugh back at this experience as if it were a simply childhood memory and realize, it's not just a memory.

I had set up this goal to bake this amazing chocolate cake; I was going to succeed by following a recipe. However, after all of the work of getting to the final product, I got something that I wasn't expecting. Even if I wasn't expecting the brownies, I came to grow quite fond of it after I realized that I enjoyed brownies after all.

Similarly, I remember this moment every time something doesn't go as planned. It may sound cliche, but even those exist for a purpose. Being in college, I've seen many of us struggle with this already in our first few years. Many of us change our majors. Many of us have learned that we can seemingly no longer be in the career field that we have always set out to be in. When we're disappointed, I highly suggest taking that time to yourself. Go out and discover new passions and try new things. If nothing of it works out for you, get back on the horse and try for that goal again.

When you're working towards a goal, and the outcome isn't what you had expected, simply adapt. Don't morn over what you could have had or what you've worked so hard to get; embrace what's in front of you. Sure, at first you'll be disappointed; but being able to adapt to it and make do with what you've got is what separates you from the rest. 

Just because you didn't get the cake right now, doesn't mean that the opportunity for baking a cake has left; what it means is that ice cream just so happens to taste a lot better with a brownie than a piece of frosted cake :)