Image credit to: Nicolas
When I was in high school I couldn’t wait to move out and live on my own and I felt more than ready to do so, but little did I know I was very wrong. My first two years of community college I did close to home, but I got bored and I felt like I was stuck so I did my last year of community college in Long Beach. My sister had also started her first year at Long Beach State which meant I wasn’t completely alone. That first year I realized how bad of a cook I was, I lived off of microwavable burritos, pastaronis, cup noodles, banana bread, and eating out. Whenever I went to the grocery store I had to call my mom because I didn’t know what I needed to buy for certain recipes. I realized I should’ve listened to my mom when she said I should be in the kitchen with her more to learn to cook.
Eating out a lot was not good for my health or my bank account, and neither was anything else I was eating. I learned to make banana bread when I was in high school, my mom would make it because she knew I loved it. She wouldn’t make it a lot since she was busy a lot, she owns a daycare which means she is constantly with the cute little kids and she has school at night sometimes. She taught me how to make it so I could have it whenever I wanted to. My mom is the type of mom who only had sugar-free snacks and cereals at home, rarely did we have things like frosted flakes. Whenever I made banana bread I would add extra sugar and cinnamon when my mom wasn’t looking. It was funny because whenever I made it she said it tasted better but I wasn’t about to tell her that it was because I added sugar and cinnamon, I was not ready to get a lecture.
Image credit to: Simply Anne
Making banana bread when I was away from home made me feel closer to my mom. I’m from Hollister, California which is in Northern California, it’s over five hours away from here. It’s predominantly White and the second largest population is Latino, there’s not a lot of diversity other than that. There also isn’t a lot of diversity with food either, we have the basic restaurants like McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Burger King. I only wish we had the type of food variety that exists here in Los Angeles.
My family is the type of family that is really close, my sister is my best friend, my brother although likes to make fun of us he’s also close to us, I talk to my parents literally everyday about my day and problems I might have. My parents are the type of parents who will support me with anything I choose to do, which is why I love them so much. They are immigrants from Mexico who immigrated to the United States to give us a better life, which is why i’m very grateful for them. This is a reason why moving away was difficult because I don’t get to see them everyday. Making banana bread makes me feel like I’m home.