Our Fickle Friend

We're running out of time. Yes, that sentence sounds very ominous, I know, but it's the conclusion that I've come to. You see, I've been thinking about time a lot lately.

As far as we know, time only goes in one direction - forward. Therefore, once time has passed, you can't get it back no matter how hard you try. I speak to this from experience because let me tell you, I've tried pretty hard before... But anyway, why was I thinking about time?

Because we only have a two weeks left in the semester (not counting finals week).

The end of this semester will mark the end of our first year of college, our last time ever being able to call ourselves freshmen, and the end of one of the greatest transitional periods of our young lives. 

Me, thinking about this year being over.
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Our last day as freshmen is just around the corner, and I spent a lot of time yesterday sitting at the duck pond looking at all the little ducklings, listening to music, and thinking about what this means. I spent time reflecting on how I spent my time (lol) these past months and how I should approach the future. 

The fact is, our time is limited. In an ideal world, we'd have enough time to try everything that enters our hearts and minds, but we all live in the real world, so we have to choose. Over the past couple of weeks I have been making attempts to do just that. 

More specifically, I've been trying to plan the rest of my college career, which basically means figuring out where I want to be at the end of this journey. Doing so, I became acutely aware of how little time there is to actually figure anything out. We have to fit school, work, extracurriculars, a social life, and sleep into our lives somehow, and it's basically a big balancing act. Every activity is interconnected because it dictates how you will spend your time, and the hardest part is trying to factor in how our decisions now will affect us further on down the line. 

All of this planning and thinking ahead made me very stressed, but it also helped me realize something:

In college and in life, there are many things that we want to do. Personally, I want to try my hand at everything. I want to figure skate, dance, sing, play four different instruments, learn all of the romance languages, dance in THON, help Lunar Lion get to the moon, build an airplane, join half of the clubs that I see at the activity fair, and more. However, it's not possible to commit yourself to doing all of those things at once. You have to choose what is most important to you, and spend time doing whatever will add the most to your life. 

If you love what you do and who you do it with, no time is ever wasted. 

Black or Pinto?

Going to Chipotle for the first time can now be considered a pretty important life event, and even though I had my very first Chipotle burrito over 7 years ago, I still remember it as if it were yesterday. It was an abnormally cold and rainy summer day, a day ill-suited for a beach trip. Yet there I was, with my mom and my best friend Anastasiya, trying to brave the wind on the sands of Belmar Beach. We tried for a few minutes, until we wisely decided to call is quits and find something else to do to convince ourselves the hour drive down was worth it. Of course, we settled on shopping. A couple hours later and a few dollars shorter, we're all starving. The place we decided to eat? Why Chipotle, of course!

I remember walking in and being a little bit amazed, and very intimidated. I had never ordered food in such a way, and all of the choices were a little bit overwhelming. But the line wasn't long - a rarity nowadays  - and I got to take my time in deciding what I wanted. I eventually decided on a burrito with pinto beans, white rice, chicken, mild and medium salsa, and everything but the lettuce. Yes, I was okay that guac cost extra, and I'm still okay with it today.

I am Leo.
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So tonight, my future roommate and I decided to do spend quality time together and go for some late night Chipotle. Tonight, I had my nth burrito to date (I haven't really been keeping track, but I'm sure it's a lot). Maybe because it's blogging day, or maybe it's the first time I've really thought about this, but I started to wonder about the history of Chipotle.

There lives a man, his name is Steve Wells, and he has changed many lives by creating Chipotle. So Steve was kind of a delinquent in high school, but he straightened out in college and really discovered his love for cooking. Upon his graduation, him and his dad Bob Wells made a deal that if Steve spent a year working in some capacity in the food industry, he would pay for his culinary school education. 

In 1990, Steve finished his education at the Culinary Institute of America and moved to San Francisco, which is where he first fell in love with big, foil wrapped burritos. Three years later, with the help of his college buddies and his dad, he opened the very first Chipotle in Denver, Colorado. Back then, no one ever expected it to grow into the $20 billion burrito empire that it is today (Side note: It seems like many successful men are named Steve).

The first Chipotle in Denver.
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It started out very modest, with only one store bringing in a couple hundred dollars worth of sales each day. Wells even had the goal of opening a fine dining restaurant on his mind. But as people found out about Chipotle and grew accustomed to its unique style, reviews started to come in and popularity began to rise. Eventually, Steve decided to venture out and open a second store. Then another one, and another one, until he had 13 altogether. But in 1996, they realized that in order to grow even more, they needed investors.

After facing many rejections, Chipotle finally found its "rich uncle" - McDonald's. For a huge food joint like McDonald's, a $50 million investment was not that big of a deal. But for Chipotle, it gave them the money they needed to open over 1,000 stores and even expand abroad.  The partnership with McDonald's, however, was not beneficial in many other ways. McDonald's was very corporate, while Chipotle remained true to its roots, doing everything by hand. Because of reasons like this, Steve Wells and the people of McDonald's often clashed, and it made him an even firmer believer in his concept of "food with integrity." 

When the two companies finally split in 2006, McDonald's came away with a good sum of money, but they ultimately got the shorter end of the stick, as Chipotle flourished even more without them. The public began to love Chipotle for the style of eating, as well as the commitment to truly fresh produce that is questionable in many other fast food restaurants. Over two decades, Steve Wells and his team have built a true burrito empire that has no worthy rival. Their loyal customers will wait in lines snaking out the door, rain or shine, through bitter wind or snow, all to get to the front of the line, hear the words "guac is extra, is that okay?" and happily answer "Yes."

This ad had to retracted.
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