Share Your Story! (My thoughts at midnight)
Hey everyone!
Let’s start being real, being ourselves, and loving life.
Comment below!!
Your story is powerful! It doesn’t matter how old you are, where you come from, or what you’ve done. The time to start something positive is NOW! Be yourself, love yourself, and share your story!
Here’s your butter Julia!
Sometimes I have dreams about food.
Shocking right? And most of the time they are crazy…which is why i don’t tell you about them. (I think I’ll just publish a “Tanner’s Crazy Dreams” book later in my life) Every once in a while though I have a dream that is not quite as crazy as the others and needs to be shared. Last night I fell asleep in Lincoln, Nebraska and woke up in the land of Julia Child.
As a 17 year old…sure I know who Julia Child is, but I never really had a chance to experience what she was all about. To be totally honest I thought she was boring when I first layed eyes on her TV show. CRAZY…I know. But there has been a change in the air.
Every day during the week I’ve started to watch “The French Chef” on the Cooking Channel. Her show puts me in a trance, ignites my passion for food, and sends me over a flavor rainbow with a huge pot of beef bourguignon on the other side. I DIDN’T KNOW HER MAGIC EXISTED. Sure, I knew who she was, I knew she was THE celebrity chef…but I didn’t know why she was who she was.
After being completely sucked into everything she has done…I’ve started to feel sad, and guilty, and in love. I feel like maybe I could’ve gotten to know her better before she passed away…even though I know that would’ve been a far off dream. Maybe I could’ve run into her in a french bistro, and asked her to sign my forehead. Who knows! But I think my feelings of guilt, sadness, and love all stem from me wishing I could meet her and follow in her footsteps…and somehow fall in love over a fancy dinner. I mean she’s just plain awesome. 
So I finished sending emails last night and slowly fell asleep. My dream started like normal…Everything I was thinking about before bed started fighting to the death. The topic that came out on top received the high honor of supplying me with great entertainment for about 5 hours. Julia was obviously the winner with her big knife and chicken minions.
In my dream Julia received an email from me. (I frequently send out emails to amazing chefs asking for advice) While I slobbered on my body pillow last night…My new Idol hit reply. She asked me to come to her home. Not because she wanted to cook with me, or talk with me, but because she was out of butter and desperately needed me to bring her some. Funny huh? I remember arriving at her kitchen, which was the exact kitchen out of her show, and guess what happened? She wouldn’t say a word to me. I offered her the butter she desperately needed…and she just didn’t say anything. I didn’t know if I came too late, or made her mad…I was extremely confused, but became even more confused when she finally looked up at me and said “just keep chopping.”
“Just Keep Chopping,” What the heck does that mean? I wasn’t even chopping anything. I was just standing in her kitchen with the butter she asked for! I tried again to communicate with her, but from then on the only thing she would say to me was “just keep chopping.”
Sadly I don’t remember much more from this dream. The part that I do remember though really REALLY impacted me. The “just keep chopping” went on for quite some time I believe. Before I headed over to the radio station today to share my super bowl hot wings recipe…I googled quotes from Julia Child. I was thinking that it would be really creepy to see “just keep chopping” on the list.
No, I didn’t find it (that would’ve been crazy!)…but I did find this one:
“You’ll never know everything about anything, especially something you love.”
― Julia Child
So I decided to interpret my dream in this way:
Just keep chopping is Julia’s way of telling me to not give up. Lately I’ve been trying to really figure out the direction I want to go after High School…and what this quote tells me is that for the rest of my life I get to chase after my dreams. I WILL be on the Food Network, I WILL go to culinary school, I WILL speak to and inspire millions of people. And while I’m doing all of this I will continue to grow, and learn about what I love. Everything will happen the way it should. (even though I’m slightly disappointed I didn’t get to eat any of her food in my dream)
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Share your dreams with me in the comments. 
Bon Appétit!
20 Seconds
I recently saw the movie “We Bought a Zoo” and many of the sayings have just completely stuck with me…I mean this movie was full of sticky stuff! (Sticky= made a big impression)
“All it takes is 20 seconds of insane courage” is one of them that helped me walk through the doors of my new kickboxing place last night. I was excited to hit the bag again…but I wasn’t excited to almost pass out in the process…I guess I didn’t realize how much I pigged out over the holidays. But what else could I of expected…Not much, considering I probably used a Paula Deen sized wheel barrow of butter from Thanksgiving to Christmas. (and no Paula’s wheel barrow is not the same size as everyone else’s wheel barrow…MUCH bigger.)
But this saying really has a lot of power. 20 seconds is NOTHING in our lives but yet it can change EVERYTHING. The bold and all caps is extremely necessary because I’m not sure you’re going to buy this concept…so let me explain.
I was on an airplane last year headed to LA and then Hawaii. (I was lucky my dad brought me along for a conference) and before we boarded the plane to LA one of our seats got upgraded to first class and I immediately nose goes’d that ticket! As I sat down I received the typical “Crap, a teenager” glare from an obvious business man. I settled into the flight and quickly pulled out my Anthony Bourdain book (“Medium Raw”) There was silence between me and my seat neighbor until finally he gazed over and saw what I was reading.
The 20 seconds began: He quickly made an effort to ask me why I was reading a book like that! “Someone your age definitely shouldn’t be reading something written by Anthony Bourdain!” He said.
My response could’ve easily been “I like it” and then on with the silence we would’ve gone…but no, I declared my passion for cooking like there was no one around…I told him about what I do and what I see myself doing in the future. This was rare for me at this point in my life to just express my passion to a random business man on an airplane. But once I uttered the words “I have a passion” I could see I completely got his attention.
Telling someone about your passion takes courage…sometimes more courage than you have. But after 20 seconds I had made a friend, someone who said “You are a lot like me when I was your age.” A complement…I think, and the rest is truly history.
A couple of months later after exchanging business cards before leaving the plane, Charles…The business man…Emailed me about coming to speak at a conference he helps put together. It was the National Restaurant Industry Conference in LA. This was an amazing opportunity that all started on an airplane.
As soon as he asked me if I’d like to do something like this you know what I thought.
Why not? (another great line from the movie)
When opportunities arise in your life I want you to take a leap and be brave! Because 20 seconds of courage is what leads you to your ultimate goals. And when you question your abilities or believe you’re not good enough just always remember to take a deep breath…ask yourself Why not? (and there’s never an answer to this question) and then let the clock tick. 19…18…17…
Always move forward and never look back. Why not isn’t a question that’s meant to be answered…It’s a question that your suppose to leave wanting more.
Always Want MORE! For yourself, for your friends, for your family, and for the good of the world.
