I was inspired to write about apple juice today as I was drinking a juice box full of it at my desk.
I don't know why, but it has been awhile since I've consumed this wonderful sweetness. Perhaps because I grew wary of the effects I know it can have on a digestive system. I know I'm not the only one out there who has suffered from PAJBTS (Post Apple Juice Bowel Traumatic System). Perhaps because I've decided that because I'm now "grown up" I can no longer consume apple juice on a regular basis, as I did when I was a kid.
Whatever the reason, I decided that those reasons were foolish today, and so I went forth bravely into the world of my youth and grabbed a few apple juice boxes from the fridge. I ripped the straw off the back of the juice box, pushed it through the little plastic wrapping that's glued more tightly to the box than is necessary, and plunged the straw deep into the sweet brown syrup that awaited my thirsty tongue.
I took my first sip...ahhhhh. So sweet! So tasty! The flavor of apples picked from an orchard danced around my mouth and taste buds like a waltz. I swished it forward and back, side to side, to fully let the flavor sink into my body and mind. And then, as though helpless, I continued to gulp the apple juice down, and in seemingly seconds, the entire juice box was gone, and all that was left was the vacuum sound of sucking up the remaining drops of this sweet nectar of life from the bottom of the container.
It was all gone. The juice box was no more. Set upon me were memories of drinking juice boxes as a kid, and the disappointment I felt when the whole box was drunk up. When you're a kid, and the juice box is done, you don't get another one. You don't get a chance to experience the wonderfulness that is drinking apple juice from a juice box. That's it. Snack time done. No more.
Ah, but today I was victorious over those memories from my childhood. For today I had brought with me not one, but TWO apple juice boxes from the fridge, so that I could drink through one box with the vigor of a starved man, and then savor the second box more than I had the first.
And just a few minutes ago, I finally enjoyed my second juice box of apple juice. Once more, I was brought into a Utopian existence, where cares and concerns fade away, because the taste of this sweet apple juice was more important than any of those.
Thank you, apple juice, for giving me a great afternoon, and for reminding me that I don't have to be a kid to drink you. Now that I'm grown up, I can appreciate you even more.
