How
Pizza Changed My Life Forever
December
24st, 1999 is the day I was introduced to pizza. Who knew that a
juicy pizza filled with melted cheese and crunchy pepperoni would convince a
picky baby to finally give up his fasting?
About
a year before that life-changing day, my mother was trying to figure out
different ways to get me to eat. She would go to the store after work and buy
one of every type of baby food that was available. Much to my mother’s dismay,
I would not eat any of them. No matter how hard she tried to convince me how
tasty sweet potatoes or sweet peas were, I would either shake my head in
disgust or spit out the food. This war would continue every day and night.
My
parents grew more worried as time passed on. They watched me not eat anything
throughout the day, drinking milk only occasionally. Every doctor visit always
ended with the same conversation: “Don’t worry he will be fine. He just has to
find something he likes to eat.” My parents were still unconvinced and
continued to find more innovative ways to get me to start eating, again to no
avail.
Christmas
season finally arrived. My parents were getting ready to go to Atlanta to visit
my sister with me in tow as the Christmas surprise. It was around 8 o’clock at
night on Christmas Eve when my parents left the little town of Meridian without
any inkling for the coming turn of events.
My
parents drove for about four hours before they had to stop by a gas station to
pick up more gas and food. Right as they pulled up to a Shell gas station, I
woke up from my hibernation to my parent’s astonishment. They decided to bring
me inside so I could get some fresh air. As if God had timed it just right,
Hunt Brothers pizza had just finished cooking several small pepperoni pizzas
and set them on the heating rack. My parents grew hungry after smelling the
intoxicating smell of fresh pizza so they decided to buy two of the pizzas.
Each pizza was the size of a small Frisbee divided into four equal slices.
After
my mom brought the pizza and me back to the car, my dad finished pumping gas
and was leaving the gas station when I famously cried out, “I’m hungry.” In
that moment of joy, my mom opened up the pizza box and gave me a slice to see
if I would eat it. It did not take me long to finish both boxes of pizza that
night. In fact, I told my parents I wanted more; it was the best Christmas
miracle my parents had ever experienced. And, to top it off, my dad’s watch
alarm went off, signaling it was midnight. Christmas day became more special to
my parents than ever before.
Pizza
became my staple food for the next several years. I devoured nothing else but
pizza, especially pepperoni pizza. Pizza was my lifesaver and my parent’s
stress reliever. Some of my fondest memories included me walking with my mother
to a Little Caesar to buy the kid’s pizza every afternoon and night. To this day,
I still cannot refuse a freshly made pizza with the tasty pepperoni evenly
distributed over the steamy cheese.
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