The case for real parmesan

No, this post is actually not going to be all about cheese {though if you know me, that's not outside the realm of possibilities. I think the lady behind the cheese counter at Whole Foods knows my name}. I'm about to use a cheese analogy to talk about life, cheesy right? And enough with the puns.

Right there it is.

But can we take a pause for a moment and consider why we buy that odorous sawdust that brands like Kraft market as real cheese? Parmesan should not have the same texture as the floor in my garage. Nor the same taste. And I'm not here to berate those people that do buy canned Parmesan, I'll show you a picture of my fridge right now. I dump that on my spaghetti. But why? I'd use less if I bought the real thing because it's so much more flavorful. It's a little extra money, a little more time, a little extra work maybe, but wouldn't I rather have that, that flavorful full pasta experience than feeling like I'd dumped dirt on my food?

So why do we do it with life? Why are we so quick to just skip out on some of those more fulfilling experiences because they cost a little more or require more of your time and effort? I'm not doing that anymore. After living abroad and just being blessed to see how another culture views life, I'm making some changes in my own.

Now not everything will change. I really appreciate having hot water and being able to leave my shower on the whole time I'm in there. {Seriously though shaving is a nightmare when you have cold water and have to turn it off}. But I'm making the effort to go out and actually experience some things while I'm in college. I never want to look back on this time and see all the missed opportunities. I'd rather look back and see a lot of sleepless nights, hard work, laughter, tears, getting lost, messing up, and learning. I want the full experience. I want real Parmesan.

Tell me these don't look awesome.

So, this year my friends and I have made it our goal to try something new every weekend. Kinda. It could be as simple as going to a new restaurant. {Seriously if you're in Columbia hit up Henry's or Cantina 76- so good and I didn't know they existed until this year. It will be my third year living here...}. We really have a list though. I don't know why we got stuck in this pattern of going to the same places every time we went out to eat. I don't know why we never went anywhere new on the weekends, but we just never did. We complained about there being nothing to do here, but we never put in the extra work to find something to do.

So this year it's time to buy the real Parmesan. I'd rather be broke, tired, and happy than living a sawdust boring kind of life. Two weekends ago we followed some locals directions to a trail in the middle of the woods in order to jump off a rock into the river. We went to the drive in and saw three movies back-to-back. We rescued a puppy off the side of the road. We lucked into a tailgate spot courtesy of someone's parents but we're making the effort to cook real things for it instead of buying Bojangles.

Yesterday I made homemade spinach and artichoke dip stuffed soft beer pretzels with bacon.  And guess what? I bought a block of real Parmigiano cheese. The Whole Foods cheese lady and I are really good friends.