My entire personality comes from the fact that, at a very young age, a person of authority told me that the more books I read, the more free pizza I’d get.
Jhanteigh Kupihea
Those of us who grew up in the mid 1980s through the 1990s had a strange relationship with pizza. We loved our pizza. This relationship was encouraged–even fostered–by parents, teachers, coaches, school administrators, principals, community leaders, artists, actors, and just about everyone in our lives.
Pizza was the ultimate motivator. Read books, raise the most money fur a fundraiser, win a contest, earn student of the month, place in the science fair/spelling bee/sporting events, win a championship, lose a championship, etc. were all rewarded with pizza.
Many of our favorite fictional heroes endorsed pizza in some form. For example, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles entire diet revolved around pizza, the epitome of iconic pizza perfection was captured in A Goofy Movie, and some pizza even came with comics!
What many of us learned as a result–what our schools and community taught us–is that reading, working hard, creating, problem solving, being competitive, being kind, looking out for others, working together, and fighting the forces of evil is winning and is rewarded with pizza. And we love pizza!
Today, many of us are a little confused by the anger we’ve received for doing the very things we were taught to do by the very people who taught us to do them. If we’ve learned anything, it is that there should be less anger and more pizza.
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