August 30, 2016 - 21:55
For the past three years, my entire family has been living in Belgium. My mom, being the adventurer that she is, decided that we would all try to be as fully immersed in the Belgian culture as possible. This meant that my two younger siblings would go to a local Belgian school, we would all try to learn French, and we would try to participate in as many Belgian traditions as possible. One of these is the tradition of eating a "Galette de Rois," or king cake, during the celebration of Epiphany. A coin or oftentimes a plastic figurine is baked into the cake itself, and the winner is the person who gets the piece with the prize inside. The winner then is allowed to wear the paper crown and is pronounced king or queen, as applicable.
One evening, as we were all gathered around the kitchen table, my mom produced a king cake and promptly cut it into pieces. My three younger siblings all hastily searched the pieces for any evidence of the prize, but mom made sure that whoever eventually did end up winning the prize was simply lucky and not cheating. My brother, who was 13 at the time, ended up winning the crown, much to the dismay of the two younger ones who pouted and whined. In order to appease the little two, my mom decided that it was the dog who would get to wear the crown, at least for a little while. The expression on my dog's face was one of absolute surprise, and, quite frankly, annoyance. I laughed so much, and promptly took a picture so that I would remember that moment forever.
I chose this picture because it reminds me of my home. I'm not Belgian by any means, but a part of me still belongs there. Some of the culture became a part of me while I was there. On a less introspective note, I also adore my dog and miss him terribly, which was another reason for choosing this picture to represent me.