My Comfort Zone
When I was nine years old I had my first experience with fast food; I was amazed.
The concept of fast food was totally new to me. I walked into Hardees and proceeded to the counter to order my food. I decided to get biscuits and gravy with hash browns. I couldn’t believe that at nine years old I could go to Hardees (which was two houses down from mine) and order something, give them some of my allowance and within almost seconds receive my food. I thought to myself why did my mother never do this for me before, it’s so easy! From that moment on, I was addicted to the concept of fast food. Cooking food at home was times of the past. Why would you spend time cooking over a stove when you could go to fast food, not even get out of your car, and within minutes have food for the whole family?
I even turned eating fast food at that age into a social event. I would invite all my friends there so we could hang out and eat at the same time. My favorite time to go was during the summer when it was really hot and my friends and I would go to get ice cream and sodas. We would order suicide cokes, which are different kinds of sodas mixed together. The employees that took our order knew exactly how we liked our cokes mixed up.
My mother had just started her own business in our home. Her time was totally consumed by starting this business. I would frequently visit Hardees in order to be around people and have people to talk to. Hardees became sort of a home away from home for me. There was an instance when I was eleven years old where I got shot in the face with a BB gun while riding my bike home from school. When I realized I was bleeding heavily I knew I had to get some help. Without any hesitation or thought I rode my bike to Hardees to get help even though my house was only two houses down. I did not hesitate about where to go for help because I knew my mother would have been too busy and I did not want to bother her. The manager at Hardees went to get my mother after she had called the police.
Fast food was more than just a place to eat for me. Hardees had offered me a place where I felt comfortable. I also did not feel like I was in the way of anyone. My comfort with fast food continued throughout my life. After I received my drivers’ license I discovered other fast food restaurants. When I would visit other fast food places I enjoyed the food, however they did not give me the comfort that I knew at Hardees.
For the last three years my boyfriend and I have eaten at fast food together at least three times a day. This habits’ expense continued to grow. We found ourselves getting tired of the dollar menu items such as McChickens and Double Cheeseburgers. We then started to order more expensive items such as combo meals, premium chicken sandwiches, and Big Macs. When we sat down and analyzed where our money was going we were shocked. On an average day we would spend forty dollars a day on fast food.
Seeing how much money we were essentially wasting on fast food is what made me want to make a huge change. I decided I was no longer going to eat fast food. This change has thrown me though a loop physically and mentally in the last six weeks. I was going to the grocery and cooking meals myself now. I did not know that something that seemed as simple as not wasting money on fast food and going to the grocery instead would be so difficult in so many ways. I had never been a frequent visitor of the grocery store or my kitchen, so being these two places felt very odd to me at first. The first time I went to the grocery store to get groceries I felt confused. I did not have a grocery list to go off of. I thought to myself, what am I supposed to get. I walked up and down every aisle in the store looking at the food. Interesting enough, I did not walk in the produce section. I was not comfortable getting fresh fruit and vegetables. I had never had those things from fast food restaurants so I was ignorant as to what they were and how you used them to cook. After walking up and down every aisle in the store I had a cart full: chicken patties, pulled pork bbq, lunchables, yogurt, lasagna, frozen pretzels, chicken nuggets, chips & dip, ice cream, burritos, TV dinners, and fish sticks. I preceded to the check out lane……$258. I thought to myself, what am I doing? It would be much cheaper to stick with fast food.
When I got home to unload all of these groceries my mother was laughing at me. As we were unpacked what seemed like thousands of groceries my mother stopped me and asked me to sit down so we could talk. My mother told me that all of these groceries were the same concepts as fast food. Pretty much all of the food I had just gotten was microwavable or ready in less than five minutes. I did not even think of that while I was in the store, I was just looking for food that looked good. My mom’s words made perfect sense; I was sticking to what I was comfortable with. I then challenged myself. I dug through boxes in storage and found several cookbooks. I looked through them and wrote down some recipes I was interested in trying. . After hours of writing down recipes, I went back to the grocery store. I did not feel confused anymore. I knew what I was there for. That trip to the grocery store was much cheaper.
Although being in the kitchen is still uncomfortable for me it is getting better. My mother put a TV in there to make it a little easier to be in there without being bored. I have definitely stepped outside of my comfort zone with food and tried new things. I am now to the point that I do not even crave fast food or smell it when I am driving by. I am starting to enjoy cooking and trying new dishes. I have noticed that since I have not been eating fast food I have stayed at home a lot more. I feel a sense of accomplishment when I finish a meal and my family enjoys it. Since my parents do not have time to cook I feel that I am doing my whole household a favor by cooking meals at home. I have gained a little bit of weight since I started cooking. I think this is due to being home more. When I had to drive somewhere to eat I only ate three times a day. I now eat more than three times a day. This change has also made me realize I have to start working out. As hard as this transition has been for me so far I am looking forward to the new lifestyle it is sure to present.

When I was nine years old I had my first experience with fast food, I was amazed.
The concept of fast food was totally new to me. I thought it was exciting that at nine years old I could go to Hardees (which was two houses down from mine) and order something, give them some of my allowance and within almost seconds receive my food. I thought to myself why did my mother never do this for me before, it was so easy! From that moment on, I was addicted to the concept of fast food. Cooking food at home was times of the past. Why would you do something that took so long when you could go to fast food, not even get out of your car, and within no time at all have food for the whole family. I even turned eating fast food at that age into a social event. I would invite all my friends there so we could hang out and eat at the same time. My favorite time to go was during the summer when it was really hot and my friends and I would get ice cream. We would order suicide cokes, which are different kinds of sodas mixed together. The employees that took our order knew exactly how we liked our cokes mixed up. This became sort of a home away from home for me. When I was eleven years old I was shot in the face by a BB gun while riding my bike home from school. My first instinct was ride my bike to Hardees, even though my house was only two more houses down. The manager at Hardees called the police and sat me down while she went to my house to get my mother. When I was twelve my mother remarried and we moved to the west side of Evansville where you cannot walk to any fast food businesses. In this marriage I acquired step siblings who were close to my age. We decided to bug our parents to buy us bikes so we were not stuck in the house all day in the summer. Our parents in turn bought us all brand new bikes. We now had a way to get to fast food. My newly acquired step siblings weren’t sure why I liked fast food as much as I did. They did not know the close relationships I had with the employees at Hardees. Fast food was more than just a place to eat for me at that age. This fast food “addiction” continued to get worse, especially after I got my drivers license. For the last three years my boyfriend and I have eaten at fast food together at least three times a day. This habits expense continued to grow. We found ourselves getting tired of the cheap stuff and we would “upgrade” our meals to a different choice on the menu. We saw how much we were spending on fast food, money which could be going somewhere productive like savings, and we were shocked. On an average day we would spend forty dollars a day just eating together.
This is when I decided to make a huge change in my life. This change has thrown me though a loop physically and mentally in the last six weeks. I decided I was no longer going to eat fast food. I was going to the grocery and cooking meals myself now. I did not know that something that seemed as simple as not wasting money on fast food and going to the grocery instead would be so difficult in so many ways. I had never been a frequent visitor of the grocery store or my kitchen, so being these two places felt very odd to me at first. The first time I went to the grocery store to get groceries I felt confused. I did not have a grocery list to go off of. I thought to myself what am I supposed to get. I walked up and down every aisle in the store looking at the food. Interesting enough, I did not walk in the produce section. I was not comfortable getting fresh fruit and vegetables. I had never had those things from fast food restaurants so I was ignorant as to what they were and how you used them to cook. After walking up and down every aisle in the store I had a cart full of food. I preceded to the check out lane……$258. I thought to myself, what am I doing this would be so much cheaper to stick with fast food. When I got home to unload all of these groceries my mother was laughing at me. As we were unpacking what seemed like thousands of groceries my mother stopped me and asked me to sit down so we could talk. My mother then told me that all of these groceries were the same concepts as fast food. Pretty much all of the food I had just gotten was microwavable or ready in less than five minutes. I did not even think of that while I was in the store, I was just looking for food that looked good. My mom’s words made perfect sense; I was sticking to what I was comfortable with. I then challenged myself. I do not know where my mother got all of her cookbooks but she has several. I dug though boxes in storage and found them. I sat down and made a grocery list from recipes that I thought might be good. After hours of this I went back to the grocery store. I did not feel confused anymore. I knew what I was there for. That trip to the grocery store was much cheaper. Being in the kitchen is still an uncomfortable feeling for me. My mother put a TV in there to make it a little easier to be in there without being bored. I have definitely stepped outside of my comfort zone with food and tried new things. I am now to the point that I do not even crave fast food or smell it when I am driving by. I am starting to enjoy cooking and trying new dishes. As hard as this transition has been for me so far I am looking forward to the new lifestyle it is sure to present.

1. Which prompt do you think you will select? Why does this one appeal to you over the others?

-I am thinking about choosing option number 2 because I have specific memories of when my family gets together and cooks

2. Which mode(s) of writing will be most helpful to you in terms of creating content? Will you primarily tell a story, compare and/or contrast or describe, for example? What other modes of writing/thinking will you utilize?

-I will for most of the paper use the narration mode. I will also utilize description in telling the story of what happens when my family gets together.

3. What specific details will you include for your reader? Why are these details important? What will they accomplish?

-I will provide specific details on the place to set in the readers mind the setting, details on the types of food prepared at every get together, and how my family reacts to these get-togethers.

4. What “place(s)” or “scene(s)” will you try to recreate for your reader? Why are they crucial?

- our lake house is crucial in the story because that is where most of the cooking and family time takes place, there is also one occasion at our house in Evansville that has importance.

5. Thinking in terms of a working thesis, what do you think will be your main reason for writing? What are you hoping to accomplish in your essay?

-my main reason for writing this essay is to provide the reader with an experience of mine that most everyone can relate to, family get-togethers with specific dishes of food.

6. What problems or struggles do you experience when it comes to writing? How can you overcome these difficulties?

-I have a really bad problem with getting my papers to flow properly. The only thing I have found to work is getting someone else to read it and get their suggestions for a better flow.

Family Cooking

My family is a non-traditional family in that no one really cooks. My parents and my aunt are too busy with their businesses to be home enough to cook. My aunt used to cook quick and easy stuff while her son lived at home. Now that her son moved out she sees no need to cook for just herself. Most of the time when I go over there I walk into the smell of popcorn, now every time I smell popcorn I think of my aunt. I have family in Montana that live on a farm so I am almost positive they cook but I have only met them once so I cannot say for sure what their cooking habits are. Last but not least, the baby of the family, my uncle Roger. He has always been the one that loves cooking. Every thanksgiving when our small family gets together my uncle deep fry’s a turkey for the meal. I will probably never have the same love for regular baked turkey after having tried his Cajun deep fried turkey. I love when he does this because the smell in the garage from the deep fryer lingers for several days. My uncle also loves to cook seafood. I am not a seafood eater so I do not look forward to his cooking of seafood when I am around. The smell of seafood makes my stomach turn and I lose my appetite. He loves to bake crab legs in our oven on holidays. When he does this I do not go in the kitchen for at least a day. There are times I can stand to be around the cooking of seafood, like when it is not in an enclosed space. When the family gets together at our lake house in Kentucky, they do a big shrimp boil. This smell does not bother me because it is done outside where the smell will not linger around for hours. I usually cook myself a steak or hamburger when these shrimp boils take place. I really do wish that I liked seafood because my family loves it and it is a special treat when it is served since it is not served that often. Every Christmas morning when my family comes over we have breakfast casserole. Everyone in my family loves this meal and looks forward to coming over on Christmas just to eat (We do not do gifts on Christmas). Since I have gotten older I have taken over the responsibility of preparing this casserole the night before and baking it in the morning for everyone. I take great pride in preparing a special occasion meal for my family that has been around for longer than I have.

Food

Food has been a way to comfort any emotions in my family. I have gotten accustomed to eating to relieve feelings that I may be experiencing. As I was growing up, my mother and I did not eat fast food except on special occasions. My mother started her own business when I was nine years old. From then on she was not available to cook for me anymore and I started to experience fast food. The concept of fast food was totally new to me. I thought it was exciting that at nine years old I could go to Hardee's and order something, give them some of my allowance and within almost seconds receive my food. I thought to myself why did my mother never do this for me before, it was so easy! From that moment on, I was addicted to the concept of fast food. Cooking food at home was times of the past. Why would you do something that took so long when you could go to fast food, not even get out of your car, and within no time at all have food for the whole family. My mother and father both have their own businesses now and they are almost never home. I was hooked to fast food for many many years. Fast food was the only thing I knew. Approximately five weeks ago, in an effort to save my money I decided not to eat fast food anymore. This change has had many pros and cons to it. I have had to get used to going to the grocery store. At first I would only get fast already prepared food that all I had to do was throw it in the microwave for a little bit. I am now transitioning into cooking my meals, which changes my grocery list dramatically. this change has also made my variety of food consumed greater. I am trying new foods and stepping out of my comfort zone from hamburgers and fries. In these past weeks, I do not crave fast food, I no longer smell the tempting smells of fast food as I am driving by, and I realize how much harder it is to prepare meals at home. Hopefully this experience in cooking at home will leave me more money and a healthier diet.

A little about me

I am 23 years old and currently a senior at the University. My passion in life is helping people who truly need it, therefore my major is social work. I like to work with populations that most of the time go unnoticed or ignored. I am a mental health technician at Southwestern Behavorial Healthcare. I have learned alot working there. I also try to help people who are suffering from substance abuse problems. In my free time I enjoy going down to Lake Barkley. My parents own a house on the lake down there. I love being on the water. I love fishing also. I am a pretty laid back person most of the time. Anything else you want to know just ask!