Romir Swar Week #11: Wingstop
Ranch. God, I love Wingstop ranch. “Universe, please DoorDash Wingstop to my house. I may die without it!” (except my inner voice reads this extremely dramatically; think Shakespearean) Honestly, not that much of an exaggeration of how it feels to fantasize about that first crispy, sweet yet sour, spicy yet smooth (cuz ranch lol) bite of Wingstop. “What does this have to do with anything?” is a question you may be asking. Well, I feel like there are two key takeaways from my constant (probably too much) daydreams about Wingstop. 1. Personally speaking, the idea of Wingstop and thinking about their offerings is always more enjoyable than actually ordering and eating the food. I feel like this mirrors the idea that life is not always what it seems to be, or what we imagine it to be. Yes, in my head, the triadic bite of cajun fries, juicy corn, and—of course—ranch sounds amazing. But in reality, its beauty begins to wither the millisecond my fingers grasp the “Wings Fries Sides (Ranch) Repeat” brown paper bag.
In other words, and in a more umbrella-istic way (one not pertaining so much to ranch), life is not as idealistic as it may be in our heads. There is a harsh awakening when we open our eyes, but more so when we escape our minds.
2. However, in a reciprocal logic, one can use this dare I say delusion to experience, embrace, and enjoy life more. One, if they're like me, may enjoy romanticizing something simple: for example, chicken wings (which does sound a bit…odd to write) but there truly is so much beauty in doing so. If I'm receiving some extent of joy or happiness from my reverie, then is there really anything wrong with my actions? This definitely raises some hmmmm questionable questions, but nonetheless, it serves as sufficient food for thought (pun intended). If this isn’t making sense, my main message here is that our minds are extremely, extremely, extremely powerful, and we need balance in order to prevent insanity, while still permitting our quixotical creative sides (pun intended again wow i need to stop) to imagine, and quite frankly chase, our own utopian world. We truly are what we think, or in other words, we become what we consume; I guess this makes me a cup of ranch lol.
Hi Romir! Dare I say, I’ve only had Wingstop once in my life…and I also don’t remember it that well. Rest assured, I’m sure it was delicious, and your description serves as an excellent advertisement! I also definitely agree with both of your takeaways and have had many experiences with both of them.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, there have been many times where I give myself incentive to work through something: after I finish all my work, I’ll get myself food. Usually, the thought of getting the food is better than the food itself. I’m not always disappointed, however; I appreciate having the motivation. As such, I also love your point regarding the fact that this “delusion” can help motivate us and make life more enjoyable. If I tell myself that I am going to enjoy an experience no matter what, I’ve found that my determination will help manifest joy in my life. Rather than chasing my utopian world, I simply see it as a harmless way to squeeze more happiness out of everyday experiences.
Like you I also crave Wingstop, but once I take the first bite I am hit with the recurring disappointment of overloaded fries and dusty vegetables, or maybe I’m just going to the wrong Wingstop. Regardless, I found that your analogy of ranch and underwhelming goals was quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteHumans often use food as a representation of achievement, earlier it would be when you got a successful hunt you would celebrate with a grand feast. Nowadays when you ace your test you might buy a ‘sweet treat’ to reward yourself. Whatever it may be, food poses as a reward once you hit a goalpost, so when that reward does not satisfy your expectations you get this feeling that all your hard work has gone to waste.
Like you said our minds are “extremely powerful” and we allow them to give importance to things that might otherwise be insignificant. However when we instill that expectation into a certain thing and it does not follow through internally we are left feeling a loss and displeased with ourselves. I think it’s important to focus on what we can control rather than what we want to control, by doing so our lives can become more fulfilling.
Writing this comment has reminded me that I haven’t had ranch in a while, fingers crossed it lives up to the hype.
Just like Shriram, I’ve also only had Wingstop once in my life: in 9th grade the president of our Science Olympiad team bought me Wingstop for winning a friendly skribbl.io tournament (it was delicious but I am definitely biased because it was free…).
ReplyDeleteIt’s quite interesting to see how commonly certain activities and ideas are romanticized. It seems to go hand-in-hand with the tendency for people to better remember the positive emotions rather than negative emotions associated with a certain memory. In the case of Wing Stop and other fast food restaurants, the appeal of delicious wings, fries, and ranch is a much more prevalent long-term emotion compared to the monetary (and probably salutary) detriments that come with actually ordering and eating fast food.
But I also heavily agree with your second point, that purely the romanticization of such a simple “pleasure” holds benefits. If our longing and yearning makes us happy, then there is no tangible detriment for doing so—at least, up until we are actually exposed to its possible detriments.
First thing I wanted to address: I loved the voice and tone you used throughout your blog, it was very, very, very entertaining. I can honestly imagine it being more so if you were to read this as dramatically as you suggested lol. I’ve never actually had Wingstop in my life, so reading your account of it was really interesting. My expectations were somewhat subverted as I thought you would be singing the praises of their food, but when you introduced how you were going to connect it back to the prompt, I was pleasantly surprised. Your reflection on how some things are more fulfilling fantasizing about than actually experiencing reminded me both of Gatsby when he finally saw Daisy again, and also my own life as of recent. On a sillier note, I’ve also never had ranch before, so maybe I’ll try it on your behalf---or maybe I won’t ever try it in case it doesn’t live up to how you’ve spoken about it. In all seriousness though, I loved your blog!
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