Whirlwind

I’m alive, but there were some moments…

…in the past seven days when that didn’t seem like a sure thing.

See, I have this recurring problem in which I needlessly bite off more than I can chew because “I can handle it” and “it will be fine.” And it almost always is. But “handling it” often comes with heaping amounts of stress that I put on myself for no reason that I can understand.

I also have a habit of catastrophizing and jumping to the worst possible conclusions at really inopportune moments. And sometimes, joy of joys, the two aforementioned foibles collaborate to really mess with me.

Here’s an example from pastry school in New York several years ago. We had a big final project in which we were assigned certain items to make and display within a given theme, which was “artists.” Easy enough. Except I had to make it harder on myself. So I asked my chef instructor if a band qualified as an artist, and he said yes. I wanted to honor Metallica, my absolute favorite band, with my final project.