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If You Don’t Write Your Story, Someone Else Will
Ignore the muse at your own risk — the story demands to be written.
Underneath my desk lives a stack of obscure books, research papers, and loose leaf notes all dedicated to the avocado. If you asked me about the avocado’s history, I could tell you all about it — from the its role in Mesoamerican history to the California farmers who schemed a marketing plan to sell it to reluctant Americans, to the Mexican cartel wars over avocado farms happening today.
Writing a history of the avocado has been a pet interest of mine since I first started studying science writing in 2017. Over the years I collected my research material and typed out a few chapters, but never truly committed myself to telling the fruit’s story. I was only around 20 years old when I started exploring the subject — my fears of being underqualified stopped me every time I tried to follow through.
Today, I work in an independent bookstore and spend much of my time reading books and reading about books (especially my favorite genre, pop science). When I recently heard about historian Sarah Allaback’s forthcoming title Green Gold: The Avocado’s Remarkable Journey From Humble Superfood to Toast of a Nation, I couldn’t help but smile. The Muse had found its storyteller.
