My Little Cousin's Big Chef

When my little cousin first came to the States with his parents, he was already 15 years old. One might consider the age a bit too old to pick up English almost from scratch before his post-secondary education. Well, my little cousin did just that and much much more. As a matter of fact, he started to earn his college credits when he was still in high school!

Today, he is a university electronic engineering student, pausing to work for a year at Verizon. He is getting his scholarship. He is sailing smoothly through the college and into the real world... He is quite a good kid all around. Nothing is big enough a deal for him to accomplish.

Being the typical Chinese big brother and sister, we told him that he was indeed a purposeful kid and almost perfect. But "you would be perfect if you could do something that doesn't have a purpose except the purpose of doing it," my husband and I helped each other in phrasing and making our point.

On Sunday, while we were discussing what was for dinner, my little cousin volunteered to cook for us. He used to work for a club house and acquired his chef skills there. To me, that's one of the biggest credits for a 21-year-old. I ran to the store for all the materials and ingredients including two packages of fresh Fettuccine. During the whole course of the food preparation, I stood by the chef to be his assistant and to learn from him.

We made shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo, Cajun salmon fillets and boiled asparagus. The dinner was fantastic served with red and white wine. So was the feeling of watching my little cousin being a big chef.

At the end of the day, I asked myself, what is the purpose of asking him anything more? He is purposeful and he is perfect.