Thankful: How learning a new skill creates bread — and patience

In an attempt to become a useful person, I told myself at the beginning of 2024 that I would teach myself a new skill every week. This lasted about two inconsistent months. I made butter, learned how to knit and cross-stitch, and even learned to cut my own hair.

None of these stuck these skills stuck like making sourdough, the hobby I became the most thankful for.

Although making sourdough is not the most challenging cooking task I've attempted, it forces me to work on other underdeveloped skills, most notably patience.

My roommate first shared her sourdough starter with me, and I taught myself to make bread through video tutorials online. I'm thankful that it is a simple, inexpensive, yet incredibly rewarding hobby that I get to share with my friends and my family.

When it comes to anything kitchen-related, I'm pretty much self-taught (in a bad way). Like many people in my generation, I can cook simple things and follow recipes, but it's not a skill I grew up developing or being particularly good at.

Making bread was not on my bingo card, so to speak, especially after the time I accidentally added salt instead of sugar to a batch of cookies I attempted in college. But I learned, and I'm thankful I did.

I'm thankful that I don't have to go to the store and buy an $8 loaf of bread made with ingredients I can't pronounce. I'm also thankful that I'm able to give my friends loaves of bread so that they too can avoid buying the $8 loaf from the store with the unpronounceable ingredients.

I'm thankful that my dad asked me to make him a loaf of bread for his birthday instead of the much more intimidating task of baking a cake.

Although making sourdough is not the most challenging cooking task I've attempted, it forces me to work on other underdeveloped skills, most notably patience. The most difficult part about the bread-making process is called the bulk ferment, which is roughly a 12-hour period in which the dough proofs. If you bake the bread too early, the bottom becomes concave and the texture of the crumb is dense and gummy. Neither quality is desirable for a good loaf, yet they are ones I encountered multiple times.

I'm not a particularly patient person. It's easy for me to point the finger at social media for rotting my attention span — and my brain, for that matter — but I've never been a particularly patient person. The phrase "good things come to those who wait" has been the antithesis of my life.

But there was no getting around it with bread-making. There were no shortcuts. Believe me, many attempts were made.

So now when I give a friend a loaf of bread, I'm able to do so knowing I made it with patience and care and that it would taste pretty darn good. For that, I'm thankful.

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