once i ate a chicken bone

on being remembered

I’ve spoken a lot about being the main character and pushing the way you want to be perceived on my Substack. I am no different in that sense.

In the summer of 2023, I was at an international camp in Italy, with kids my age from around the world. We were together for three weeks, and it was the sort of experience that changes your life. I think the funny thing about these sorts of things though, is you go in with the knowledge that the probability of ever seeing these people ever again is very slim. In this sense, you are able to become whoever you want for those three weeks. Choose the person you would like to become, and you only have to keep the façade up for those three weeks. It’s refreshing, and fun in a way.

On the second day into camp, I was sitting with the kids from Hong Kong at lunch, where we were eating chicken drumsticks. The attention was on me, probably cause I was telling a story that I cannot quite remember at this moment. But I was determined to keep it. 

One thing you should know about me, that I feel you realize after only a couple of meals, is I eat food in very strange ways. I eat everything off the apple until I’m left with just the stem and seeds. I scrape all the fruit off the skin of the peach and then eat the skin last. I bite my Goldfish crackers in half so I can have two perfect sides. It’s the way I’ve always done it, and it’s half for attention, but also just normal for me. In the case of the chicken, I scrape the bones clean because I feel guilty wasting it.

So I’m sitting at this table, and I eat the cartilage in front of everyone, which I see as quite normal, but apparently they do not. Why did you eat the bone Addy? Well, I didn’t. But I thought the concept of this was quite funny, so I told them I often eat chicken bones. Here is where I proceed to saw it in half with my very dull knife and take a small bite (I apologize I know this is disgusting). They mention it for the rest of the camp.

I don’t think vying for attention is particularly bad, or in my case, putting on a bit of a show for the reaction. I think I mostly did it for the sake of being memorable. Only knowing these people for a short period of time, the grand effect I’ll have on their lives is going to be very slim. I think that’s why it’s essential to do silly things and take the chance to look odd to ensure that your name will make an appearance in stories when we all go back home.