The war began the moment I sat at the kitchen table. I never ate a large amount of food during any one meal and was a picky eater anyway. Needless to say, certain items on this menu weren’t going to enter my body willingly. I recall potatoes of some kind and meat of some type. Those portions of vegetables and meats were of the usual assortment to ensure I had balanced diet. But then I saw that my mom had placed another item on my plate, one which overlapped with a food group already present. These were the only three foods to be served, and I didn’t love third option which were small green spheres.

My young mind knew that I had to eat everything on my plate before I would be able to devour dessert. But I’d rather endure watching the news before I’d allow that food to enter my digestive tract!

So the war commenced. I stared down that second serving of vegetables; what adults at the grocery store called ‘peas’. While chewing the potatoes and cutting the meat, I pondered the oddness of that word. Peas came in a pod and were supposed to be nutritious for you. Why didn’t they just stay in their pods and be protected from mouths that would want to crush them?

My parents had left the kitchen by this point. The television was loud in the living room. I could have used that as cover to slip the peas back in the bowl or, better yet, in the trash. I could just tell my parents I’d eaten them and they’d believe me. But, see, my parents were the generals, and I was their solider, and those peas—well, they were weaker. They had already been plucked from their homes and forced to fight a battle they never chose.

And now I had to finish them off.

So I’m sorry, my opponents. I would have gladly called a ceasefire and laid down my fork, but that was a call I just couldn’t make. Maybe this fate was better than living every day in fear, though; wondering when another hungry human might loom over you, preparing for the kill.

Thinking back, it didn’t seem fair. You were defenseless; having no weapons except your bland taste. I wielded a weapon much worse, though, and that was ignorance. I wasted so much time blindly following leaders whose methods were slightly flawed. I allowed them to mold me into the person they wanted me to be in order to win this war, and only now do I see who the real winner is…

Me!

And now I know that peas taste good and that I should have ate more of them!