Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

The task today, is to write about my blog. I tried writing down words to describe my life at Bagel Grove, words that had something to do with what I want to write about.

I felt empty, like there’s nothing of substance to draw on. Is my blog about going through the motions? Is it about building something before you know what kind of person you are? Is it about being handed something that already works and being told how to work it, rather than building it from scratch?

Or is it just about bagels? Is it going to be about the thing everyone loves, the thing I take for granted because I’ve spent my entire adult life surrounded by the best, and all the time feeling it isn’t good enough.

I think the blog is going to be about me. I’m the Bae-Gal.

It feels good to rename my most common reference. I’m not “the bagel girl” or just simply “bagel!” or “did you bring bagels?” or “can we get bagels for my organization…” but I’m the BAE.GAL. So listen up gals. Other gals, fellow GALS. I’m with her, no I AM her. Thebae-gal.com.

This blog is about what I’ve got to say drawn from the shit I’ve lived through. The night shifts, the calls, the mistakes, the frowns, the people who’ve treated me, and every member of my staff, like shit through the years. The newspaper articles, the self image, the incongruity of it all.

That’s been my life for 15 years, not really knowing how I got here, or why, and doing it anyway. Putting as much heart into it as I possibly can, and getting a hell of a lot out of it, all the while knowing, this isn’t all there is. I’ve molded, shaped, learned, failed, felt depressed, ashamed and yelled and screamed my way here.

That’s what I’m passing on to my kids, this feeling, this knowing, this place of satisfaction.

Thank you bagel, you teach so well.