The Essentials by Marisa Seguin

Marisa Seguin has a new project and she's taking submissions - The Essentials.

The idea for this project was hatched a few months ago. I had offered to drive a friend to the grocery store while he was temporarily without a car. Despite claiming to be out of food, he emerged from the grocery store with two six-packs, a thin crust frozen pizza, wedge of parmesan cheese, bag of oranges, and 300 paper napkins.

I think that, as children, many of us have this perception of how adults eat. We think of things like broccoli and cream of mushroom soup as “grown-up food” and can’t wait for the day when we can buy ourselves Pop Tarts, Froot Loops, or any of the other treats our parents wouldn’t let us eat as kids. Then we grow up, have shopping trips like these, and realize that “grown-up food” isn’t usually as responsible as we had thought. 

After mocking him for about ten minutes (“Well, at least you won’t get scurvy”), I had to draw the list. We’ve all experienced these trips to the grocery store. The times when you think you have nothing in your cupboards and somehow manage to come out with only a box of macaroni and cheese, a pumpkin shaped Reese’s peanut butter cup, and a dozen eggs. It is precisely these shopping trips that I’d like to document. The trips when you look at these purchases and wonder, “How am I a functioning adult?”

Want to submit your own list of essentials for Marisa? Go here.