Skyline Chili by John

Skyline Chili by John - March 2021 Scholarship Essay

Skyline Chili (Skyline), an iconic food throughout the greater Cincinnati area, and rightfully so, the sweet, tangy, salty meat sauce, combined with the slightly melted chemically infused cheese, makes for possibly the most blissful experience known to man. You can have your chili and cheese over spaghetti, on a hot dog, or even in a burrito wrap.
For as long as I can remember, I have been eating Skyline Chili. I would not be surprised if my mom substituted baby food for Skyline Chili at times!
My earliest memories of Skyline are of my entire extended family going to dinner at Skyline. I cherish these times and memories of drawing on paper with crayons and just enjoying the company of my family. My family continues this tradition today, but I cannot say it is the same. People grow up, die, change, that’s just the way it is. Life goes on.
Eventually, around my years in middle school, I grew out of the age of my only source of Skyline being someone else. I learned to boil my spaghetti and heat canned chili in a small pot. It was also around this time that I started to slip away from my childhood friends, everyone joined their respective cliques. We did not make this decision consciously, but middle school was an awkward time, and we all just fell into place.
This period of my life went on for a while, approximately up until my freshman year of high school. Up until this point I had only ever liked eating the 3-way from Skyline (chili, cheese, and spaghetti). But, during my freshman year of high school, I started to branch out. I tried the cheese Coney (a chili cheese dog and also their flagship item) and also the Chilito (chili cheese burrito). It was also during this time I ended up abandoning my middle school friends. I left them because I was embarrassed to be their friend. So, I shopped the market for new friends and ended up finding a new group of people I enjoyed.
I was stable friends with this group for about a year, before I was abandoned by that friend group. They went on to start hanging out with a different group of people. I didn’t make much of an effort to assimilate at the time because I had been enjoying the company of the people on my swim team, therefore I was fine with less time with my school friends. I know this paragraph is all very confusing, but this was a confusing time, however I believe it was also a defining time because I had to lose myself to find myself.
When I learned to drive, I no longer had to have someone else to get the chili or make it myself. I could go right to the source, where it was best. I could get my Skyline when I wanted it and how I wanted it. I didn’t have to try and fit someone else's schedule or conform to anything that I didn’t think was ideal for me. During my years of learning to drive, I think I made the most growth as a person. I realized that it just wasn’t going to work out with my friends that had left me, and I just didn’t fit right with what their new group had going for them. Just recently, I have finally accepted that that is ok.
Just like my relationship with Skyline has grown, so has my relationship with myself. I have discovered a greater understanding of what I want for myself socially and professionally. I have actually rekindled my relationship with my friends from middle school. We went to Skyline last week! I have grown so much in my high school years, consequently I have become a more mature individual academically and professionally. Who knows? I might even start making my own chili!