Writing Sample 11

My distaste for nuts does not come from a dislike of flavor or even texture of nuts themselves, but rather stems from my first experiences with the white chocolate macadamia cookie. The frustration and immense disappointment of biting into a cookie full of creamy sweet smooth white chocolate, prickling with the anticipation of delight, but instead being cruelly fooled by look-alike pieces of white, not soft, or sweet, hard, dry, disgusting, cardboard-like nut- it is the worst feeling in the world. I absolutely could not deal with the shock or disappointment and promptly avoided that specific cookie.

However, as a passionate lover of white chocolate, it was difficult for me to avoid it for long (seeing as it is the only commercially accepted white chocolate cookie) I was hardly ever successful in my avoidance of this, my favorite snack-time dessert. So what did I do? How on earth did I manage? My cravings, desire for, and obsession with white chocolate was stronger than my disappointment in nuts. Thus, I would choose the white chocolate macadamia cookie and proceed to carve out as many of the nuts as I could identify. It was a tedious assignment, with much mess, and often ended in entire cookie crumbling disasters. If I managed to keep the majority of the cookie intact, I immediately knew with the first bite that it was well worth the effort and I would become instantly delighted and satisfied with myself and my technique.

Why did my brain work like this as a child? I have been avoiding nuts, picking out, and eating around nuts for years. It has become natural. "I don’t like nuts." I say it all the time.

But the thing is, I do like nuts: candied nuts, the peanuts bathed in sauce on my Asian food, salted peanut packs on the airplane. I eat them all.