First Sous Chef

Here starts a new category of the blog: Sous Chefs. This will (attempt) to be a daily post during Lent about one of the people I consider to be a blessing in my life. Now sous chefs are typically known as second-in-command. It is not meant to call someone secondary, but a blessing and a helping hand to my life. I have not yet decided if I'm going to focus on people at Purdue or my life as a whole. This is actually my third time trying this sort of thing. In my senior year of high school, I failed to write 40 handwritten letters for Lent, but as I mentioned in last year's Lent blog, they still bore fruit. Between college and high school graduation, I tried to do a post a day about a person, place, or thing that made me who I am thus far on my Finsta, that failed too. So here is to falling down and getting back up again. *BTW I only get like 4 emails a month so I won't be sending an email out with every post, so stay up to date!

With the first blog post, in the 2020 Lenten Sous Chef Draft, Day 1 Ash Wednesday selects......

SIMRAT!

Background on becoming friends with Simrat- Simrat and I grew up on opposite ends of Carmel and actually never met in the k-12 days. Yet, PSUB brought our friendship together last year. She joined the Publicity committee and we slowly, but surely began to click as friends. Now we both volunteer as Directors of the Purdue Student Union Board.

Some of my favorite moments/things/parts of being friends with Simrat-

1) I usually spent about 1 hour a week in the office prior to my position as director. It came every Wednesday during my office hours. My favorite part of the office hours was when Simrat would walk in after class was over and joyfully say: "WILL!!" She's one of the few people to ever greet me so happily and she does it regularly. There is a 90% I would not be in the position I am in if it wasn't for those office greetings every Wednesday. I now joke that we should have a celebration every time someone comes into the office, but it really isn't a joke. It made a difference to me because she would welcome me in the friendliest way while I always had to greet others.

2) I have had the pleasure of joining Simrat on some late-night grocery store runs. I learned she keeps a playlist for the people close to her in life. I think that it is a unique thing to have songs that are shared as friendship, remind her of a friendship, or are just loved by her friend. A beautiful way to care about people. Our grocery store runs have the tendency to expose my cheap side, but she does not judge me at all. The grocery store is our place to vent, share ideas, and sometimes challenge each other.

3) Simrat is great at sharing her appreciation for the people she cares about. She has this awesome quality where she literally can't help but compliment someone sometimes. She has a smile and laugh that make people feel heard and loved. I tell her she's my own personal ego-boost (she laughs at my bad jokes) sometimes, but I really am just thanking her for recognizing the grace that I have and not focusing on the negatives. She will remind me that I am funny and how she loved my stand-up comedy performance. I am constantly thankful I feel appreciated for just being Will.

4) I think this is my favorite Simrat quote: "Will I only listen to your advice about 50% of the time." "Okay, I guess that's fair but how often is it right?" "Like 95%" I then proceeded to tell her that she was my ego-boost again and she agreed she probably pumps me up too much.

5) Simrat gets super excited when she has big plans/ideas or creates awesome/cute/fun things. I think of her Murder Mystery centerpieces and scrapbooking that she had her big smile about (and other plans I'm not sure I'm at liberty to discuss). She'd show them off and share with everyone. I loved seeing her happy about it.

So Simrat-

You were the first sous chef I had the passion and excitement to write about! I hope this shows you even part of the appreciation and acceptance you've shown me. I am thankful for all the time we have spent getting to know each other. I hope you get super excited when you think of our friendship because to me it is something super awesome that you help put into motion.

You are a blessing Simrat :)