I’m Just a 17 Year Old Girl Who Loves Baking Bread
Imagine waking up to the smell of warm bread….you open your eyes as it comes wafting into your room and you feel it’s warm aroma encircling you. It gives you a cozy feeling and makes you want to cuddle in your blankets with a good book. It gives you a content feeling, a feeling that everything is ok. Well that is how I wake up when my mom makes bread in the mornings. My name is Lyvia Zenger and when I was very young, my mom set out to find a bread recipe that was easy, delicious, and healthy! Yes you read that right! Healthy! After searching all over Utah, she came across the recipe that would change my families experience with bread for the rest of our lives. It was a recipe for….HOMEMADE WHEAT BREAD!
I remember the first time I tried that amazing bread; it was right after the bread came out of the oven and when I put that honey covered piece of warm bread it to my mouth, it melted and tasted absolutely delicious. I didn’t even know bread could give me that sensation! But it did, and I feel in love. In fact, I fell so deeply in love with this bread that my 9 year old self decided it was worth giving up white bread for it. That is saying something!
My oldest sister decided this bread was so good that it had to be shared and thats when she begin the bread business. She sold it to all of our neighbors and they LOVED it. I thought this business was awesome and I admired my sister for bringing so much joy to people through a loaf of bread.
When the business passed to my second oldest sister, my awe continued to grow at the amount of impact a loaf of bread could have! After 2 years of watching her serve amazing people bread, I was finally got the opportunity to sell bread.
The first time I made it, I was awful! It took me SO LONG to get it into the oven. I also had the printed recipe by my side every time I baked for a whole year. I wanted to make sure I never forgot an ingredient :)
Even though I was SO BAD at baking bread and only had 2 customers for the first year of my business, I was happy.
Why was I happy? I was doing something that I loved.
Baking bread became something I loved because I could do so much while baking it!
One Saturday morning, I got up at 5:30am to start baking bread. I was the only one awake and went to go shut all my families bedroom doors so I wouldn’t wake them up with all my noise. While getting everything ready to bake my bread, I put in my head phones (I didn’t have air pods at the time haha) and turned on my absolute favorite podcast: The Think Different Theory by Josh Forti. This podcast is one of my favorites because it is eye opening, positive, inspiring, and funny. All that morning I relished in the smell of warm bread while taking in information that was changing my life. It was awesome!
I not only listen to podcasts while baking my bread, but I jam out to music, talk with my family, listen to audiobooks, or just think.
In all honesty, baking bread is a stress reliever for me and the best part is that I get paid to do that!
Baking bread also gave me something very unexpected…amazing people in my life! As I acquired more and more customers over time, they slowly started becoming my really good friends. Even if I am tired after hours of baking, I still look forward to delivering bread to them every week because I get to talk with them and feel their vibrant energy. I NEVER would have met my customers without bread!
Bread has changed the course of my life, especially since it has allowed me to focus on my other passions because I don’t have to be stuck at a 9–5 job.
I LOVE being 17 and I LOVE baking bread. It’s an awesome life!
Thank you for reading! Never forget that life is short, so use every minute to do what you love!