As a child born in 1999, I have always been slightly different from the rest of my classmates, the majority of whom were  born in 2000. I was constantly reminded that my zodiac animal was a rabbit while everyone else’s was a dragon.

Perhaps for this reason or perhaps just because I was an odd ball, I began mimicking rabbit in kindergarten. Among other things, I tried to run and hop fast and I enjoyed a rabbit's favorite treat: carrots.

Every day during lunchtime, I rushed to the salad bar with all the vegetables and specifically picked out the mini carrots in the salad to fulfill my mission as a “rabbit.” My childish mind truly believed these miraculous orange sticks were one of the best foods to eat. Even at home, I ate them in various ways: stir-fried, pickled, boiled and especially raw. Not only did I enjoy eating them, but they also made me feel 1,000 times healthier.

It was (quite literally) a healthy obsession. Every school day I repeated this process until the summer of fifth grade. At that point, I woke up and thought to myself, “Am I really enjoying these carrots?” and I continued to question myself while my appetite for carrots started to diminish with each passing day.

Now, as a high school student remembering my carrot obsession, I really want to give my younger self a knock on the head. It’s just so embarrassing to think about how I convinced myself to like and eat carrots because I thought it would make me seem more like a rabbit.

Even though my tendency to identify with rabbits is now in the past, the carrots I see in any dish will always serve as a reminder of my rather strange obsession with rabbits.