The Wide and Wonderful World of Ice Cream Flavors

The thing I need to remind myself the next time I’m at a fork in the road is that there will be a struggle and that I have no guarantee of a thrilling outcome, but that I will never discover the richness of other flavors unless I branch out beyond Vanilla.

Growing up I took a kind of unusual pride and pleasure in telling people that my favorite ice cream flavor was vanilla. People used to tease me because vanilla is . . . well vanilla. I mean among the dozens and dozens of extravagant flavors; how could vanilla be my favorite?

I was one of those kids that was very suspicious of unusual flavors or unknown tastes. It really wasn’t until my late teens that I developed a somewhat more mature palate for vegetables and extravagant fruits and international fare. And now it would be hard to even say what my favorite ice cream flavor is because I like so many different ones for so many different reasons. In a real sense, I have a flavor of the week. 

It’s made me think about how many times in my life I felt like I’ve had to give up my first choice or first love or favorite option and go with an alternative that never felt quite as exciting. Like eating broccoli as a kid: why should I eat broccoli when there is plenty of wonderfully tasty pasta right in the cupboard? Why should I struggle to learn to figure our geometry when algebra had made so much more sense and I was already comfortable with it?

But over the years I’ve come to realize that there might be a different way of looking at things that maybe aren’t totally comfortable or warmly familiar at the start. Just because I’ve grown gradually to enjoy other flavors of ice cream doesn’t mean that I no longer enjoy vanilla in certain occasions. Vanilla goes very nicely with certain cakes and other desserts. In that sense I haven’t given up on vanilla just because I now like other flavors too.

In other contexts, as new opportunities present themselves to us, we get the chance to lean into that realm of the unknown and that is often uncomfortable. And I dare say that not everything I’ve explored I’ve ended up loving. But even the fact that I discover something new that I’m not quite as fond with gives me the added experience to build upon so that new views and new opportunities avail themselves that I would have never known even existed if I hadn’t made those steps in the dark.

One of the first chances I had to really spread my wings and make significant commitments to new experiences for me was when I auditioned for my first high school music. I had sung with choirs for about a year and while I felt somewhat confident with my voice, acting and especially dancing were new territories for me. The easy choice, the one that would have avoided uncomfortable wading into new arenas, would have been to just keep my head down, go to classes in high school, not stick my neck out there in any way and certainly don’t audition for an experience I didn’t know for certain that I would be any good at or even end up enjoying. There is something so appealing in those moments of decision to the status quo. Even if our current reality is far from ideal, there is a powerful pull to keep things as they are because they are known and more predictable.

That first year I sang in the chorus and picked up some minor roles in a wonderful production of Anything Goes. And I ended up loving it despite of or perhaps in part because of the hard work the whole cast and orchestra and production team put into pulling the show off. In subsequent years I performed in other musicals and plays because I was happy to discover that I got an absolute thrill in performing with dozens of other amazing people who I grew to enjoy and appreciate so much.

So I would never say that I am somehow giving up vanilla now that in general I enjoy pralines and cream or raspberry cheesecake even better now. I’m grateful for vanilla because it helped me prepare to experience so many other amazing flavors. Perhaps we can look at setbacks and that uncomfortable period when we are experiencing uncharted territory as simply the process of discovering new favorite things and ideas and relationships and ways of growing. When I look back on my life so far, those decision spaces where I could either choose to keep things where they were or branch out into new opportunities have led to all of the significant experiences of my life. The thing I guess I need to remind myself the next time I’m in one of those situations is that there will be a struggle and that I have no guarantee of a thrilling outcome, but that I will never discover the richness of other flavors unless I branch out beyond just Vanilla.