The Circle of Life
13-year-old me was eating dinner at my first girlfriend’s house and we were having tacos. I love tacos and was fairly comfortable with her family since we’d been dating for a few weeks, so I dug right in. Halfway through my second taco, I noticed my girlfriend had barely picked at hers. I asked her what was going on. What she said next made my blood run cold. In the saddest way possible she murmurs, “This was my cow.”
As the conversation continued, I learned that the delicious taco beef was from a cow that she had raised, brought to shows, and generally loved since it was an infant. As if chewing on my girlfriend’s pet as she was on the verge of tears wasn’t awkward enough however, her dad immediately tells her to grow up and accept what was inevitable.
He gives her the redneck, farmer version of the circle of life speech. And he also tells me to keep eating, as to not encourage her. So, I’m stuck between my girlfriend, and a man who has been very calm so far about me kissing his daughter. Needless to say, I sided with her father and had a third taco. 13-year-old moron I was, I believed I tried some consolation such as: “Well you obviously raised it well,” and “She was treated humanely, right?”