The Onion Doth Hateth Me…

I am not a fan of the onion. There are many bizarre reasons as to why I dislike the onion and I am not ashamed to explain why. When my brother was a young lad, around the age of three, my family and I noticed something particularly odd about his odor. My baby brothers feet, smelled of onions. This is not opinion, this is fact. As soon as the socks came off his feet, everyone’s eyes felt the pain. We were temporally blinded. Our eyes were flooded with tears. This was no laughing matter. Moving on, my little brother also had this habit of eating onions, like it was a snack. Then after his indulgence he would precede to blow putrid breath in my face. As a result, his mighty blow caused my nostrils to instantly be clear of all congestion. Next, my brother also ate everything onion. He ate onion rings, fresh onion, sweet onion, and yes, even Funyuns (a onion flavored corn snack). I think it’s safe to say why I wasn’t fascinated with the onion. I blame my brother.

Now, I find myself living a life onion-less. But, can you blame me? All the horrible things I had to endure. I refuse to have onions on my burgers, on my chili dogs, in my pastas, and to this very day, I refuse to eat, dare I say…Funyuns.

But I do believe something is starting to change within me. Last week, in my literature class, we read a poem, entitled, The Traveling Onion, we read the poem over and over, underlining phrases we deemed important, writing our thoughts, and expressing our opinion with others. After the class discussion I came to the conclusion about this poem and the onion. Everything has importance, even the onion. Often as an American, I take many things for granted and forget how truly blessed I am to be in this country. The poem was about what the onion went through to get here, its story, it’s history, its journey and significance.

Yes, I went through a lot of bad with the onion. But that doesn’t mean I should take it for granted or ignore its importance. I need not to take granted of the many things I have, this poem reminded me how truly blessed I am.