Poached egg rage

I woke up this morning super hungry and I realised I had nothing to eat. I decided I wanted to learn how to make poached eggs because I was honestly craving them. So as expected, I looked up a couple of recipes on the Internet.

A few minutes later, armed with all the kitchen utensils I can get my hands on, I began what I like to think of as the most frustrating culinary adventure of my life. I was going to make poached eggs, no matter how many 'chicken embryos' I had to sacrifice for the cause.

The people on the Internet told me that its easier to poach fresh eggs compared to the normal imported eggs we get around here. Well, thanks to the great chicken massacre that happened around here a few years ago, fresh eggs are almost unheard of.

This is what failure looks like.

Okay so I failed three times before I made something that was even remotely edible. It was frustrating watching everything fall apart every single time. And it did not help me to think about how much water or how many eggs I was wasting with every attempt. I almost wanted to give up, but I didn't want to until I had something to eat on my plate.

On the right, is the runny mess which I call my first attempt.

After the third try, I took some time to breathe, because by this point, my emotions were all over the place. I decided that I was going to muster all the patience within me and actually make something edible this time around. And so I did. I actually managed to make something that I could eat. WHOAA, right?

Well here it is. Well it does not look like the ones you get at restaurants, but at least it was edible.

It didn't look particularly good, but I was brimming with happiness because I finally managed to make something that I could at least eat. It was almost 1 PM now, and I had not eaten anything all day, so it was actually a really big deal. But first, I wanted to reheat the toast in the microwave for a little while. So I carefully placed the egg on a little plate on the dining table and turned my back on it to heat the toast.

When I turned around, my grandmother was standing by the table and well, she seemed happy. I looked down at the plate I had kept the egg on and VOILA! The egg was gone. I asked her if she had just eaten the egg I kept on the plate and of course, she did. Well, at least someone got to taste it. :)

So here I am, munching on some toast, just wondering what that egg I poached would have tasted like. Well it is certainly not the end of  the world. I could always try again some other time and hopefully make it look like the ones on those fancy cooking shows. There is always hope. YES, THERE IS.

Some motivation for the last minute people.

So my AS exams are less than a month away and I have decided to start studying. YAY!
Since I started grade 11, I haven't really studied much. While it is not something I am particularly proud of, it is also not something I can go back and change.

So here I am, huddled on a seat by my window, watching the rain pour (not exactly, I included that in there for, well, drama) , learning everything I didn't learn for the past few months. This might not get me straight A's but at least I will be happy knowing I tried. 

If you are a very last minute person like I am, how can you stay motivated and get good grades?
Well, the key is to keep your expectations really really low. Let's be realistic. You had eight months to study, probably a hundred chapters to cover with all the subjects you are doing combined, but you chose to  do all that work in the very last month. You probably won't do as well as the ones who had been working hard since the very beginning. But that is the other thing, in life, you are not really in a competition with anyone else. I read somewhere, "The only person worth competing with is the person you were yesterday." And it's true. You don't know  how many times that quote has changed my mood from a depressed lunatic to a female Bob Marley.

If you constantly keep on comparing yourself with other people that is really not going to do you any good. As the people of the great Interwebs say, "No matter how good you are at something, there is always an 8 year old Asian that is better than you." I am not trying to demotivate you, I promise.

I  also realise that a lot of you can't afford to be all relaxed about failing an exam. Your parents and teachers probably expect a lot from you and it is driving you crazy that you might end up disappointing them. OH THE HORROR, right? Well, I go through that too. But ultimately, it's my life. Why should I study? I had a conversation with a friend last night and he told me "Screw people. Study for yourself." Wow. His quotes in freaking Italics. I swear to god, he must be very proud of himself if he reads this. But he is right, you know. You are doing this for yourself. You are doing this to be independent. You are doing this to be able to get a good job and afford everything you had to go without. You are doing this because you want to.

So my advice, just let go of all the pressures and just indulge in learning. Be enchanted by every new concept that comes your way. Celebrate every little Math problem that you manage to solve and basically, just enjoy learning... for yourself. It might not make you better than everyone else, but you will be better than the person you were yesterday, and I'm sure your future self will thank you for it. That is all the motivation that you need, really.