Uncovering who I am through shared experiences
by danica drezner
Welcome to Food Diplomat Diaries by me, Danica Faye Drezner. I am a documentarian and writer based in Los Angeles, California who founded Food Diplomat in the Spring of 2018.
The project initially began as a dream to travel the world and uncover how food is connected to more than what is on the surface. Unexpectedly, this journey turned inward as I began to make sense of all the ways food connects me to myself.
Since I was a young girl I have battled various eating disorders and body dysmorphia. Food was my pleasure and my pain as I used it to numb emotions I did not understand. Once I began studying International Relations at Boston University, the opportunity to study abroad confronted the control I had with food. Do I say no to a dream experience due to my food anxiety, or do I jump into the fear?
Thankfully, I jumped into my fear and it reimagined how I saw food. Living with host families who cooked my meals initially sparked my anxiety, but with a little re-imagination and a few deep breaths, I made the decision to change the way I saw the dinner table.
At the time, I was learning about Human Diplomacy and made the dinner table my fieldwork. What once was my fear became the place for great discovery to happen; I used the shared meals with my host families in Spain and Ecuador to dive deeper into these individuals who opened up their lives for me to reside in. In return, I began to better understand myself.
Sharing experiences to tell our stories is where I found my power. Since founding Food Diplomat, I have traveled throughout Europe, India, and Egypt to make better sense of how I can learn about myself through connecting with the world outside of myself. Essentially, I learned what it meant to be a diplomat… a Food Diplomat.
As my team and I prepare to launch our series in June of 2021, I plan to begin sharing more about my personal experiences. Stories will range from the shared experiences with others near and afar as well as the inner journeys I have gone on to make sense of my relationship to food and myself.
Sign up now to join me on the continuous journey of uncovering what it means to be a Food Diplomat.