I AM A LOAF OF BREAD.

Yes, the title is in all caps. Why? Well, read on to find out! (PS- am I doing this clickbait
thing right?)

Context time! As I've written about before, this is a weird time™ to be alive, full of a
lot of feelings. And not all of them are positive. To be very honest with you, hardly any
of them are. It has never been easier to get caught up in negativity. One may preach
about trying to look for the positives in everything, but it DOES get difficult. Like,
rip-out-your-hair, cry-five-times-a-day kind of difficult. The kind of difficult that leaves
you wondering if you will ever be able to pull yourself out of this slump. You know?

In search of some positivity, I turn to my three best friends, as I always have done. I've
known and loved them for over 10 years now. It is to them I run whenever anything
happens, good or bad. Through the ups and downs, even the diagonals, the one constant
is them. Our group chat is our safe space. 

The past couple of weeks, pretty much all the news from my end was negative. Full of
unproductivity, self-loathing, demotivation, my inferiority complex, doubt, panic- the
whole shebang. And unfortunately, they had similar reports. As I said, times are weird.

But a few days ago, I felt a shift in me, for the better. (It may or may not have been due
to the fact that we have been having very good weather here in Sheffield.) And I felt
happier, I was smiling, singing along to my playlist again, just generally more positive.
And I’m happy to report that as of me writing this, the trend has continued! :D

So, of course, I went to my girls, with smiles to report instead of tears. And it felt good,
sharing positive feelings and thoughts with the people I’m closest to. They, too, are
experiencing a lift in their spirits off late. Hmm. What’s in the air? XD

So most of today was spent going back and forth, sharing the good things that were
happening and the things we were excited for, and how, even though we were not in the
best place a few days ago, somehow, we were able to rise again.

And that thought sparked a realisation in me. A realisation so strong that I didn't even
know what it was at first, or where it came from. Like on a billboard in Times Square,
suddenly there were words flashing in my brain.

The words were: ‘I AM A LOAF OF BREAD.’

Yes, in all caps. Hence the (aggressive) title of this post.

I was dazed. Like, what does that MEAN? Then it hit me. My brain was thinking in
metaphors. 

Let me explain. We are all made up of things. Every single one of us is made of similar
things, but in different proportions. We are all very different but exactly the same, at our
core. 

We all start small. Naïve, even. We all have good things in us, lots of them. The good
things help us grow and mature. And so we rise. But sometimes, life happens. Life will
push us down. Life will punch the air out of our lungs and leave us deflated. 

It will feel like we will never be able to rise again. But, the impossible happens. We rise
again anyway. This time, even bigger and better than before. But then life happens again.
We are put in situations we have never been in before. The heat will be intense. We will
feel like we are being tortured for no fault of our own. 

But that ‘torture’? That pressure? That’s what will turn us into the people we were meant
to be. Being challenged, living through different circumstances, learning and changing
and growing? That’s what makes us human. 

Now, if you know something about bread baking, (which I’m sure a few of you might,
seeing as there’s nothing else to do) you will be able to draw some similarities here.
There’s so many different kinds of bread, different proportions of flours, yeast helps the
dough rise, but then you punch it down again, but you let it rise again, and then you bake
it in the oven which changes the raw, inedible dough into soft, delicious bread. 

See what I mean here? (Kudos if you do, honestly, because I myself don’t fully know
XD this post is very scattered and all over the place)

I guess what I really mean is, there will be ups as well as downs. But you need to
experience the downs to be able to experience and appreciate the ups. Even when you’re
grown and risen, you may be brought down by any number of things. But those things
will only make you stronger, and help you rise better than before.

We are all just loaves of bread, waiting to be baked. And the thing with bread baking is,
you need to be patient. You can’t expect results immediately. Similarly, you can’t expect
to be able to master a new skill or overcome bad habits in an instant. That’s now how
life works. Life will pull you down. Guaranteed. But it’ll also be the slingshot that
catapults you up, up, and away.

I was so pleased with my realisation that I wanted to tell my friends right then and there.
However, I discovered that the topic was long gone. So I decided to write about it
instead, so that I could:

a) share my love for metaphors with the world, and
b) talk about baking bread. Because like, who doesn’t like freshly baked bread? 

*casual flex* yes I made that bread but that's not the point.

This whole post was just, like, everywhere. LOL. Congratulations if you made it till the
end!

PS- one could say I am a loaf of bread because I am a snack :p

PPS- my love affair with metaphors runs deep. More about that in a future post!
Thanks for coming on this journey with me! :D