Without a doubt, the most engaging part of the PLA Newsletter each week is the new column “Storytime with Sam.” Each Thursday afternoon I look forward to learning a little more about the life of Samuel Guthrie and the wisdom he imparts on us. Because of this, I decided to try my hand at “Storytime with Ryan” for my blog this week. (If you have any better suggestions for a name for “Storytime with Ryan”, perhaps an alliterative one, please hit me up.)
Storytime with Ryan:
It all happened so fast. I was sitting in the Macaulay Honors College Lecture Hall on the PLA trip to New York City last fall, wearing my blue pinstripe suit and a purple paisley tie, and feeling inspired to get a “side-hustle” by Farnoosh Torabi. After a morning of speakers, I was pretty hungry by the time lunch came around. Maybe it was ravenous hunger, or maybe it was hubris, but as I went to take a bite of pineapple off my lunch plate, I also to a bite of my plastic fork. One of the prongs of the plastic fork broke off and was now in my mouth. Because I was sitting next to Farnoosh, I felt like my etiquette was being judged, so I thought “WWTMD?” (What Would Tammy Miller Do). Now, Tammy Miller or any reasonable person would have politely removed the plastic fork bit from their mouth with a napkin and played it off cool, but I am not always a reasonable person. In the moment, I decided that the best possible option was to cut my losses and swallow the prong of my fork.
So what’s the lesson here? 1) If you decide to swallow the prong of your fork when eating at a PLA event, try to find some bread. The idea is to cushion your stomach so the prong doesn’t puncture your insides. (This is actually what they tell you to do if your dog eats something sharp, but I assumed the same principle would apply to me.) And 2) Sometime you’ll make bad decisions under pressure. The key is to not beat yourself up over them and to just roll with it. Life is a just a series of awkward moments and bad decisions, so you can either think about all the dumb things you’ve done in your life or just laugh it off. I choose the latter.
I couldn’t agree more about looking forward to Story Time with Sam each week. I usually scroll to it, read through it, then scroll back up to the top to read through the rest of the email. I really liked your take on it this week for the blog. I feel like I would’ve handled the situation with considerably less grace, likely spending a significant amount of time with my fingers in my mouth plunging around looking for a piece of plastic. All in all, a very good read and I look forward to reading more Story Time with Ryan in the future!
Ryan,
I loved this. Honestly, it was exactly what I needed to read right now. I will now save some break just in case I shall a piece of a plastic fork!! What I took away from this story is that you have a lot of grit – not only to think quick on your feet but to swallow the fork piece with pride. You swallowed away an public embarrassing, and I applaud you for that.
Next time I swallow a piece of a fork, I will think, “WWRD?” (What Would Ryan Do?)
Hahahaha I loved your story Ryan!!! Can’t believe that you actually swallowed it!?! I would have plunged my fingers into my mouth, yanked out the plastic, and somehow dealt with the embarrassment. And while it may have been embarrassing at first, I’m sure it would have resulted in lots of lunch-time laughter and entertaining anecdotes about other embarrassing moments!
Also – I gave it some though – and I have some alliterative suggestions….
1. Revelations with Ryan
2. Recommendations from Ryan
3. Real-time with Ryan
Maybe one of them will work for you!
Ryan,
What a valuable lesson! Next time I swallow a bit of plastic fork (it’s happened to me before too, I admit) I will make sure to eat some bread. I agree that this principle would in fact carry over to humans . Thank you for sharing!
Natalia
P.S. The other takeaway from your Famished Fork Fail, as I shall refer to this incident because it’s the best alliteration I could come up with, is also very important. We have a choice in how we handle situations that don’t necessarily play out in an ideal matter, and moving past them with a laugh and a lesson learned is definitely the way to go. I really enjoyed this post, just as I enjoy Storytime with Sam, because I like how even such small moments in our lives can be used as opportunities to reflect and grow. I hope to read more Storytime with Ryan (or Ryan’s Reflections or Reminiscing with Ryan) blogs in the future.