…But then the moment came. I remember it like it was yesterday, the moment I had my first candy bar! I was eleven years old and the doctor gave me the go ahead to eat chocolate with no limitations. I couldn’t wait to get home and have my first piece of the decadent treat that I had longed for since I could remember.

My mom gave me one dollar after dinner and sent me around the corner to the 7-Eleven store. When I walked into the store I headed straight for the candy aisle. Now, instead of only looking at the vanilla flavored candy which was usually on the top and bottom rows, I had to take in the whole buffet of chocolate in the middle rows in front of me. It was such a hard choice to only pick just one. How on Earth was I going to decide? I was overwhelmed. There were so many options.

At first I contemplated a $100,000 Grand bar that my friends on the street would sometimes taunt me with by taking a bite and letting me watch the gooey thick caramel and chocolate drip from the end of the candy bar into their mouths while they grunted Mmmm and mumbled that it was good. But I didn’t like caramel all that much so I ruled that out and moved to the Reese’s Peanut butter cups.  But I wasn’t sure if I would like it. I knew I liked peanut butter but it seemed awfully small and I wanted to get the biggest piece of chocolate as I could for my dollar.

So after long deliberation, I finally settled on a Kit-Kat bar. I was fascinated by them anyway. While I was allergic, when waiting in line at the checkout stand at the grocery store with my mom I would fondle the Kit-Kat bars and break them in fours so that each stick would be separated. Something about feeling them break apart through the foil wrapper felt neat. Similar to that feeling you got when you crumbled tin foil in your hand.

When I finally decided and purchased the Kit-Kat bar I ran home with it. My Mom and Dad were sitting at the kitchen table waiting for me with big grins on their faces and my Mom asked,

“So what did you decide on kid?”

I pulled the Kit-Kat bar out from the bag and handed it to my Mom.

“Wow! A Kit-Kat bar! , she exaggerated ever so slightly for my benefit.  “How about we start with just half for now since this is your first one? You don’t want to overdo it.”

That was absolutely fine with me because I felt like I was going to jump out of my skin from the anticipation. She broke it in half and gave me two sticks.  I broke the two sticks in half and ate one by one slowly, savoring every little bite. I started by biting each end off of the stick ever so carefully only to eat just the chocolate and leave the wafer in tact. Then, I started nibbling the sides off, again just the chocolate, until it was just the wafers with chocolate in between the layers. Finally, with no mercy, I munched down the rest of it. It was everything I imagined it would be. It was creamy and delicious. I was in chocolate heaven. There was so much more to explore in the world of chocolate. I could hardly wait until my next trip to the grocery store.