Growing up, I was never the biggest Taco Bell fan. That completely changed this semester. Little did I know that come October of this year, the fast food chain’s Big Cheez-It would hold the special place in my heart that it now does.
It all started when a few friends and I were driving back to Claremont after spontaneously watching a performance of “Waitress” at a theater in La Mirada. It was late at night and people were hungry, so we stopped by a Taco Bell drive-thru on our way back to campus. As we were figuring out what to order, one friend quickly noticed something called Big Cheez-It on the menu.
After laughing and attempting to visualize how big a Big Cheez-It would actually be, we ordered one along with our Baja Blasts and burritos, cackling when it came out. In many ways, Big Cheez-It looks like a normal Cheez-It, square-shaped with crinkled edges and the customary orange color, but also enlarged to the size of my hand!
I snapped a blurry photo of my friends holding the giant orange cracker before we all broke off a piece and dug in. It was simply the perfect addition to an altogether silly night.
Acquiring this ridiculous Cheez-It was the end to an already ridiculous series of events. Our decision to see “Waitress” together was incredibly last minute, and two of the friends who came had zero idea what the musical was about; I accidentally bit one of them in the car; we almost couldn’t find the theater.
“As he held the Cheez-It, I played a video of birthday candles being lit on my phone. “
To top this chaotic night off, now we were sharing a giant Cheez-It at midnight on our way back to school. I remember chuckling to myself at the end of night, thinking, “this is such a college memory.”
Flash forward to a few days later, when some of my other friends and I were trying to figure out what dessert to bring to a friend’s belated birthday dinner celebration. After learning through the grapevine that he was a fan of Cheez-Its, my mind was made up. “We have to get him the Taco Bell Big Cheez-It,” I told my friends.
I laugh now because the plan to get this friend a Big Cheez-It had some major hiccups. At first, he offered to pick up the Taco Bell order which contained his secret Cheez-It, forcing us to construct a web of white lies to prevent him from ruining the surprise. Eventually, though, after convincing the birthday boy that he in fact did not need to pick up the order for us, the rest of the mission went according to plan. After my friend Kayla grabbed the food and rushed to our dinner spot, we presented him with the giant cracker while singing a belated happy birthday. As he held the Cheez-It, I played a video of birthday candles being lit on my phone.
The birthday Cheez-It mission was ultimately a success, and as silly as it sounds, I am so grateful to this giant cracker. Thinking about my first encounter with Big Cheez-It — as the finale to a chaotic night with friends — to the spectacle it took to acquire one for a friend’s birthday, the quintessentially orange cracker has reminded me just how silly and ridiculous college life can be at times.
Sometimes, when I am in the thick of thesis-writing and worrying about grad school applications, I desperately need these reminders. School can be stressful; planning for post-grad life can be stressful. Some days, though, all you need to do is laugh with those you love about a giant Cheez-It.
As we continue to trudge through the fall semester, then, I hope this story not only encourages you all to try Taco Bell’s Big Cheez-It (there’s a Taco Bell in Montclair and Upland!), but that it also makes you laugh amidst the stress. These are the kind of moments that are getting me through the remaining weeks of the semester and reminding me why college life is so special.
Emily Kim PO ’25 is from Irvine, California. She would like to formally apologize to Elia Ching CM ’27 for accidentally biting him in the car on the way to see “Waitress.”
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