Sean Kim 1-1

Personal Achievement Reflection

What I chose for my achievement is that I make food for my family. I got to play this part in my
family because my mom, who has been cooking for our family for over ten years, started to go
to work last year. At first, it was customary to skip meals, and there were times when I solved it
with instant foods. When it was over a month since my mom started working, I thought that this
habit would ruin our health, so I suggested making meals instead of instant foods. My dad tried
first to cook but gave up on it as he almost burnt down the house, and my brother did not have
any interest in cooking for my family, which led me to cook dinner. Learning how to cook was
not something to understand in a day or a week. My fingers had multiple cuts and burn marks
which I now think of as honorable marks. Finally, when I got to handle ingredients without any
scratches and cook with no burns, I was fully adapted to the part I had continued for over a
year. During the week, I usually make dinner for my family except for Tuesday, Wednesday, and
Sunday, when my mom does not go to work, lunch for myself when I goto the school, snack for
my dog, and sometimes I make lunch on Saturday. In addition, I help my mom cook exceptional
traditional food during the holidays.
Usually, I try to cook something new for the family. For that reason, Lunch and Dinner
menus vary from traditional Korean meals like Bibimbap, Bulgogi, Sam Gae Tang, and any
other conventional meals to simple western foods like spaghetti or pasta, pizza, hamburger, and
taco. Sometimes, new attempts fail miserably, but I do not think failure is harmful because I
learn dangerous situations to be aware of next time. Other times when I get lessons are when
there is spare time when my mom cooks or I don't have to cook meals. In my spare time, I
practice baking. Even though I have soft baking skills due to low practice time, I try my best to
bake something that requires high baking skills like cakes, pies, muffins, and bread to maximize
learning by challenging myself.
Cooking and baking made me learn about myself that I did not know. Sometimes I am
not particularly eager to leave my comfort zone because I was afraid of failing and liked to
succeed smoothly without any struggle. A big problem then was that I could not learn anything
out of it, and it is why I thought that when I cooked, I was afraid of injuring myself, but when I
tried to step over the fear of injuries, I realized that I could be brave and leave my comfort zone
easier than I thought. Feeling confident to leave the comfort zone led to fluently developing skills
to handle ingredients and difficulties when cooking with creativity when decorating the plate.
Also, skills that I improved are time and money management. Time is one of the most critical
components when cooking, and by improving skills to cook, time management skills are also
enhanced equally. Another skill that also improved is money management skills. Ingredients
required to cook new foods require me to go shopping, and whenever I do, I make a list of
things I need to buy with approximate prices and add them up to the total. I try not to go over
that total by bringing the cash instead of cards and my bag to reduce buying plastic bags.
I think my role in my family will help me in the future when I leave my parent's care. First
of all, cooking is not required in Korea due to the well-developed delivery service, but in
Canada, I have to cook for myself or someone else, which is a skill that I am practicing.
Secondly, time and money management skills are something that I should care about when I
leave their care. Many grown-up adults fail to manage their budgets in foods, which also
impacts another skill that I improved on: time management skill to work on other priorities.
Finally, cooking and baking for my family over and over for an extended period will help me with
tenacity. Not giving up or skipping the job to cook will improve my perseverance, impacting my
educational and social skills. In conclusion, cooking impacts cooking skills and helps my future
to be more successful.