Life's a box of chocolates

Mom bought my sister and I each a box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day.

I know I shouldn’t eat them. I’ve been training so hard at the gym, trying to get in shape for the spring track and field season, and well, diabetes runs in my family so I like to watch how much sugar I eat.

But come on, I’m a kid!

The box was filled with those mixed chocolates. You know, the kind that has some cream filled chocolates, or nuts, or, my favourite, caramel. Well, I stuffed the box into my backpack so I could share with my friend Sophie, at school – and I forgot the piece of paper that describes the chocolates.

Every time Sophie and I picked one, it was a surprise. We never knew whether it would be filled with strawberry cream (yuck) or fudge or maybe even nuts. Sometimes we could guess. Like, we knew the squares probably had caramel in them, and the rounded chocolates were likely filled with orange or strawberry cream. I stayed away from those.

But then there were the surprises. The long skinny chocolate that wasn’t butterscotch, but some kind of fruit and nut bar. I’ve never had it before, and I admit, I was kind of nervous. But guess what? It was delicious!

I guess life really is like a box of chocolates. There’s the familiar stuff – like going to school, hanging out with family or even going to Grandpa’s farm. That’s the square caramel. Dependable.

And then, there’s the surprises, the person you meet on your way to school, a detour off the main running path that leads to adventure, or maybe learning something exciting and new in the classroom. Those are the fruit and nut bar moments. Yeah, I know, they’re not always delicious. But one thing’s for sure, you’ll never know if you don’t try.

Gotta jet!

- Chase Superman Duffy