It’s Okay Not To Be Perfect – Cookie Edition

Advent is full of anticipation and excitement, and the end of fall semester is filled with much the same feeling; although sometimes it can be hard to see through the stress of finals to the light and excitement of the oncoming Christmas.
I was having trouble seeing through the stress of oncoming testing and haze of sleep deprivation this week when God came to me in the most unexpected of places, in the baking of Christmas cookies. I had committed to making two dozen cookies to decorate for the Christmas party and to be honest was slightly dreading the time that cookie making was going to take away from my studying time. But I had scheduled it out and I was ready to make the cookies, get it over with and move on to what was really important. But things got complicated when I realized that I did not have a rolling pin or cookie cutters. But I was not going to let this stop me, I am a senior in college, I have battled finals 6 times over and an absence of cookie making tools was not going to stop me, so armed with a plastic cup and a butter knife I got to work.
As I battled with cookie dough and creating the semblance of shapes with some Christmas spirit and occasionally muttering under my breath “LCM I’m not complaining but you better not ever doubt my commitment to you”, I had a lot of time to think and most importantly breathe. And once I allowed myself to clear my head and allowed myself to think about things other than electrical engineering courses; I learned some things, like it is okay to not be perfect.
Because if my cookies are one thing they are not perfect, and since it is finals season and everyone could do with a little chuckle I have decided to share with you my Christmas cookies:

These are supposed to be Christmas trees, but they kind of look like arrows. Perhaps they are trying to point me in the direction of a better Christmas cookie.

These are meant to be Minnesota…I think they just look like they are trying to eat each other whilst wearing tiny hats.

These are stars. I think some of them look like they are dancing, I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

Here we have in order a stocking, a candle, a house, another stocking and a heart. I don’t have anything witty to say about these cookies other than I’m sorry about the stockings.

By the end I was kind of getting tired and the haze of sleep deprivation was encroaching on the clarity of cookie making adventures so I made some very oversized “ornaments” and another Christmas tree.

Not all of the cookies made it, some of them broke and they were delicious.

So in this time of finals take a deep breath, make cookies even if you don’t have time to, and remember that it is okay not to be perfect.

-Laura Kulm