I nearly cried ... over cookies.
My mom and sister has been looking forward to making sugar cookies from scratch all day. I was surprised (well, not really. they are a couple of really lazy people) when they had asked me to make the cookies after dinner. So, that's what I ended up doing after all the dishes had been cleaned and put on the rack to dry.
I found myself staring, not really seeing, at the materials I needed to make the cookies. After five minutes, I was well on my way to making a true disaster of the culinary arts. And, that's exactly what I did. I not only mixed the sugar with the wrong stuff, I put them together wrong, ensuring dry and crumbles.
But, the absolute worst part was watching my mother's and sister's expressions flash across their faces as they took the first bite of the cookie. Expectant to surprise to slight regurgitation and back to pleasant expectancy.
My sister: "You put way too much baking soda..."
Me: "Who are you now? The master chef of the house?"
My mother: "They really are good, they just need a little work..."
My sister: "... a lot more work..."
And I just ran out of the room to the kitchen in almost a dizzying hurry. I stared at the cookies and the batter, crossed the kitchen and threw them into the trash in one swift movement. I started over and hoped to God that they would be at least presentable as tears ran down my face.
Then, I thought to myself that I was being ridiculous, my sister was an absolute priss and my mom was just trying not to hurt my feelings. I was acting to irrationally that I allowed them to let me feel like a complete failure and I totally fell for it!
So, I eventually put the five cookies into the warmed oven, stared at the timer and waited for them to cook entirely. My mom tried them after I had taken them ceremoniously out of the oven. Her face lit up and she hugged me, telling me I did a great job.
And I did.
And I learned that I couldn't let people get to my head. Not even my family, because I truly put their words to heart, and those words can't always be "sugar and spice and everything nice".
Don't let people get to you. But, don't build up such a strong wall that people can't even get into. Think of it as a semi-permeable surface in which only good and love can pass into, and bad can only go out:)
