Forest Gump said that “Life is like a box of chocolates. You
never know what you’re gonna get.” I always thought that was so simple, yet so
true. While I understood the
philosophical nature of the statement, I never really understood the surface of
it. As a child I remember being so in
awe of what I considered a fancy box of chocolates. Sure, they were probably from Walgreens,
wrapped in white paper with a gold bow painted on the top, but I thought the
entire box was beautiful, each chocolate a mystery waiting to be solved. Unfortunately, I was forbidden to solve any
of those mysteries, forbidden to taste any of what I imagined to be gooey
centers…until now!
Sure, most chocolates have soy lecithin in them as a
preservative, but now that the milk allergy is gone, I feel a little splurging
is necessary, especially at Christmas time. I can finally solve some of those mysteries
I’ve always been curious about. My first
chocolate did come out of a box just like I described above. It was delicious: dark chocolate on the
outside and a gooey caramel filling.
Yum. I was at work, so I didn’t
have time to savor or to think of a proper description, but “yum” seems to do
the job. I also tried one with a coconut
filling that was so good that I had to try another one, so I picked a big
square. Maybe I got a bit greedy picking
the biggest chocolate in the box, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that it
was terrible! It had what I think was
toffee in the center. It was so hard
that I couldn’t even bite through it! I
ended up sucking all the chocolate off the top and then throwing the rest in
the trash can. Now I completely understand the “you never know what you’re
gonna get” part of the quote. I really
had no idea that some of the chocolates might actually be unpleasant (at least
to my taste buds).
My husband brought home another box of Belgian chocolates
that was wrapped in gold paper with a sheer fabric bow on the top. It was really wrapped like a present! When I finally tore through the paper, there
was more wrapping and plastic covering on the inside. I was surprised to find a paper guide to the
chocolates inside. This completely went
against the quote! There was a picture
of the chocolate and a description of what the chocolate was. Sure, this took a little bite out of the
mystery, but created another one altogether.
I read the descriptions and then tried to decide which one I wanted to
taste. The mystery came in when I tried to
decide if it actually tasted like the description. The first one I chose was described as “dark
chocolate with a cherry center” with a picture of a small round, dark
chocolate. Once I found the chocolate
meeting this description, I pulled it out of the box and sunk my teeth in. I searched for the cherry, but didn’t find
one. I was a bit disappointed, but I
didn’t give up! I chose another one that
claimed it was “white chocolate with a creamy lemon filling.” This description didn’t disappoint! It was exactly that, but I was surprised at
how lemony the filling actually was.
Delicious!
The moral of the story?
Even if you think know what you’re “gonna get,” you might actually get
something entirely different, maybe better, maybe worse. And so, the quote still holds true. Whether you have a description or an idea of
what you think the outcome is going to be, “Life is like a box of chocolates.”
