Everyone Should Cook
Cooking is the closest thing to independence. When you cook your favourite meal, or in fact any meal your body can tolerate, you experience not just a sense of accomplishment but also a sense of self-reliance.
We usually depend on our families or lunch homes to provide us with quality meals, largely because we lack either the time or the skill to prepare them ourselves. Sometimes it is both. Learning to cook has other advantages too. It forces your mind to focus on what is at hand. If you are clumsy by nature, your kitchen will quickly reflect that reality.
If you are an anxious person, cooking can overwhelm all your senses at once. But once you figure out the preparation stage, it can also calm you down. It teaches you how to take control of a situation that could otherwise spiral out of control.
That is probably why some people love cooking. It gives them a sense of control, but it also offers a tangible outcome for their effort, which triggers a deep feeling of accomplishment. Of course, doing it every single day can feel mundane, unless you ritualise it enough for it to become part of your muscle memory.
Preparing meals for yourself every day builds a sense of independence. In a worst-case scenario, you know you can take care of yourself. You can source ingredients from the market and cook a decent meal without relying on anyone else.
That is why every person should know how to cook. Beyond the satisfaction of making a good dish and the independence it brings, cooking also cultivates empathy.
In many families, people do not realise how demanding it is to cook for multiple people every single day. When you learn to cook yourself, you begin to understand how overwhelming it can be. Only then do you think twice before casually ordering random things from whoever is managing the kitchen.
This is not about feminism. It is about caring for the people who take care of you. Cooking is therapeutic in the sense that it soothes anxious thoughts by giving them a structure. It helps you develop empathy. And most importantly, it makes you independent.
From where I see it, that is one of the most dignified ways to live your life.