Here

Yesterday, while my mind was drifting during culinary math, Taylor turned to me and asked, “Do you ever stop to think how bizarre and amazing all this is? We’re in Napa Valley at the best cooking school there is.”

Though, moments before, I was concerned with calculating yield percentages, this statement snapped me back to an overwhelming yet remarkable reality: I am in Napa. I’m 3000 miles away from home, and I am ridiculously lucky.

There are nineteen of us in the second section of the AOS degree in the Culinary Arts at the Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone campus in St. Helena. We are only the second class to go through the CIA’s famed and highly respected associate degree program at the Greystone campus. I think every single one of us feels the same way – thrilled and terribly grateful to be here.

Before very recently, all CIA students went through the program at Hyde Park, NY. While I think we all would have been delighted to attend the New York program, we are twice fortunate to go to the CIA and to be in one of the world’s most exciting (and beautiful) culinary regions. Here, I’m surrounded by wineries, farmers markets, and many unparalleled restaurants – much of this within walking distance of my house. Palm trees stand in front of my cottage, figs grow in my backyard, and I can grow vegetables in my garden all year long. Coming from the comparatively grey New York area, I am very much aware of and enchanted by all that California has to offer.

Then there is, of course, the school itself. Located in the imposing fortress of the old Christian Brother’s winery, the Greystone campus would make the most extreme gastrophobe want to learn to cook. Industry experts walk the halls daily, attending conferences and workshops. The kitchens, the gorgeous kitchens, have the most beautiful equipment and appliances most in the trade will ever see. And, obviously, there are the teachers- most of whom not only have years of experience but also many advanced degrees.

Though I could wax poetic for hours about the school, its facilities, and its instructors, lest I appear to be brown nosing (even more than I already am), I’ll describe what I’ve learned about most since arriving here- my fellow students. There are nineteen of us. Oregon, Arkansas, California, Vermont, Alaska, and Hawaii are just some of the states we call home. Some of us have had years of culinary experience, others are trading careers in business for a new life. We range in age from eighteen to thirty. Though these facts might serve to divide us, I think that, overall, the nineteen are much more alike than dissimilar.

Certainly, we all share a passion for and obsession with food, but there’s more than that. For one thing, our class is much more highly educated and worldlier than I would have ever expected. Many of us have undergraduate degrees or have completed a good deal of tertiary education. All are thoroughly eloquent and competent students -our class discussion on organic agriculture spanned varied topics such as the chemical composition of fertilizer, economic externalities, and the logistics of food distribution. It seems that everyone has a million interesting things to say and countless talents to contribute.

It hasn’t even been three weeks since I’ve arrived at Greystone, but I already know that this is one of the best decisions I have made during my 22 years on this planet. As surprising, and perhaps blasphemous, as it may sound to some, I am more proud of my future degree here at Greystone than I am of my recently achieved bachelors from William and Mary. Here, I feel so close to the myriad opportunities that the culinary world has to offer. Here, I’m surrounded by what I love.