Every once in a while, you need to go back to your roots, and be reminded of why you’re doing what you’re doing. What I’m fortunate for is having a blog post written by 21 year old me rambling on about life and what my purpose is.
In April of 2011, prior to graduation, it hit me. Today I’m going to share with you what I wrote when I realized the path I wanted in life was just under my nose…
[The Beginning:
The job hunt has begun, and I have truly thrown myself through a whirlwind trying to pinpoint what it is that I want to accomplish with a career. Of course, one of the top things that I want and NEED is money, but I think above that is joy in what I do. I know a lot of people have a difficult time in their first years, even decades of work trying to figure out what they want to pursue. I know you’ve heard at least one person in your life say “I’m (insert age) and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up”.
To me, the whole “what do I want to be when I grow up” thing is simple. By the time you’re my age and graduating college, you know what your skills are.
Growing up, I was always excellent at expressing my feelings through writing. Although I didn’t put as much focus into my school papers (which were usually on topics that I couldn’t care less about, i.e. The Russian Revolution), I had a serious knack for creatively finding the words to identify my exact feelings. As I got older, I started writing less which inadvertently caused me to build a shell around myself and resort back to my shy, anxious personality which is where I stand today.
So I have been sitting here senior year trying to prepare for life after college, for interviews, and for whatever comes my way. In doing so, I’ve really had to pick apart myself and try to analyze who I am, because in reality, who you are defines what you should do with yourself, right? I was struggling with the decision of going into public relations, marketing, or advertising, had set up several mock interviews, and received feedback. After all of that, I realized I had NO clue where I was going with this whole attempt at “picking myself apart and analyzing who I am”. It is so much simpler than that.
A couple of months ago I had one of those out of body experiences. After spending several hours on StumbleUpon, salivating over different food blogs that kept popping up, I couldn’t believe it. After all this time, it was right under my nose. Why wouldn’t I write about food for a living? I know I’m a great writer, and I know how much I love food. First of all, can I just say that my passion for food is way beyond just loving to eat it. I thoroughly enjoy making myself food, making food for others, watching their reactions to eating my food, reading menus, and smelling the aromas. Every particle of the food experience, I love.
This brings me to my final point. I know someday I will be a food critic. I know that someday people will want to know where I’ve been and what I think they should eat at a specific restaurant and what not to get and so on and so forth. However, I need to figure out a way to get myself into that job position. Is it waiting for the guy who works for my local paper to retire and then snatching his spot up? Maybe. But I’m going to start my food writing right now. Why? Because truly and honestly, I am so passionate about this subject that I can’t resist. I want people to read what I have to say about things, I want my opinion to make a difference, and I want to love what I do.
Project Eat your heart out starts now.]
Amen. Happy Throwback Thursday everyone!
No Comments