Admitted. I used to like bananas a lot more when I was a kid than I do now. But every once in a while, I do snatch one from the fruit pile in the dining hall to take with me. I usually don’t eat my banana right away, because I prefer to eat them when they’re sweet. Or I prefer to mix them up in a smoothy. Or make banana muffins and the likes. You get the point. For me, bananas have to be speckled and spotted – in other words, they have to be very ripe.

Since they usually don’t come that way when they’re served in the dining hall, whenever I take a banana (which isn’t very often to begin with), I’ll keep it for a couple of days before I decide what I’ll do with it.

And so, last week, I took a banana for that very purpose to wait until it’s very ripe so I can make myself something yummy with it. The problem: I never got to keep it until it was very ripe, because the next day, one of the students coming to visit me, when stepping out my door, asked if he could have my banana. I gave it to him, thinking: I can get myself a new banana when they’re back on the menu in the dining the next time.

True enough, a couple of days later, there they were: bananas on the fruit pile. I grabbed one, intent on making another attempt of waiting until it’ll be somewhat very ripe. Little did I know at the time that that very evening another one of the students coming to visit me would spot the banana, and express that she wished to eat this banana since she was very hungry. Ah, well, I thought. I can try again next time.

So, here I have another banana yet again. And I wonder who it will be this time to enjoy it. Will it be me for once?

PS. Of course, I could always go to the fruit store and stock up on a whole bunch of bananas. I’m not going to starve to death because my visitors keep eating my bananas …