I would like to officially change all of my red flags to purple flags. Why?

Well… I like grape flavored things. For me, Jolly Ranchers, Gatorade, Sour Patch Kids, Jello, gummy bears, and gum were all meant to be grape flavored. Please do not be alarmed. I can assure that I am not insane, it is just a personal preference.

My strange liking to the artificial grape flavoring began months before I got my braces on in 2016. The ICE BREAKERS ICE CUBES ARCTIC GRAPE Sugar Free Gum was sitting where all the gum in the car was located. The purple box was just too tempting. The moment I put the cube into my mouth, the course of my life was changed.

I realized that enjoying the flavor of grape candy and such was weird when I walked into Albanese during my sophomore year. On the gummy side of the store, there are containers for all of the individual original gummy bear flavors lined up in a beautiful row; however one flavor was missing. Purple. Grape! I walked myself over to an employee and asked them why there weren’t any grape gummies out to purchase. The woman simply said, “Because that’s a weird flavor of gummy to want on its own.” What?

People are so incredibly grossed out by this love of grape that I have. For example, Sour Patch Kids recently came out with packs of only grape Sour Patch Kids. To me, this was wonderful, so I brought them to my Pre-AP ELA class taught by Mr. Cavan. The candy gathered so much attention that the class was briefly paused and we talked about how “abused” choice of grape flavored things.

 To all my haters and questionnaires out there, I give you this advice: Don’t knock it until you try it! If you love it, then you now have a whole new flavor of gummy bears and Gatorade to try that others will forever steer clear of.