Self-Discovery

While I am quite the fan of stability, my life has seen a number of significant changes in the past year. At this time last year, I found myself transitioning from a 3-year stint in retail to a career at a desk. This wasn't a sudden and unexpected event, though. After looking for another path for two years I finally found my in and was going for it.

To be honest, I came a bit late to the grown up party. Instead of going to college, I attempted to become a self-published author while living with my parents. I also worked for them, initially at our gourmet food store and then at our manufacturing plant when they purchased two companies whose products they sold at the shop. And that's what I did until 2007 when I decided to move to Austin with one of my friends. My reasons for leaving New England were both good and bad at the time but I still believe I am better for all of the choices I've made in the past.

So when it comes to my career, I'm pretty proud of what I've been able to accomplish within a relatively short period of time. Before pairing up with Christine, my employment history was pretty dismal. In essence, my resume has only genuinely existed since 2009. And when we got together I knew I had to start doing whatever was necessary to ensure that we didn't spend the rest of our lives suffering because I was too afraid of being paid for being responsible.

I bring this up because I am nearing the one year anniversary of my latest form of employment, where I sit comfortably at a desk and work hard everyday trying to make people happy. Sometimes it's stressful, but by the end of the day that's what it really boils down to. That's what I do. And I do enjoy it, much more than most of the other jobs I have had in the past. That feels odd to me after working for so long and having so much to complain about when I get home. In fact, the only thing I usually complain about is myself and my lack of patience. Hahaha.

As a result, I've found myself thinking that if I can set my mind on getting a job I enjoy I can probably do a lot of other things that I want to accomplish if I try hard enough!

In the past few weeks, I've started drinking fresh fruit and vegetable juices several times a week. I have started doing yoga and walking on my lunch break instead of gawking at Facebook. And I'm also in the beginning stages of setting up a home-based bakery and goodie mix company.

Essentially, I have been spending more time on me and less time on trying to get more site traffic by following current trends and consuming my time with developing recipes that I don't actually want to make.

This has happened before. When I went on Cookbook Cafe TV to discuss my e-book Summertime Sippers, I mentioned to the host that I had gotten into menu planning in order to save time and money and she even had me give a presentation on my experiences during the Techmunch event her company hosts when it came to Austin in the spring. So I know that I can't do what I did last time and just eat pre-packaged everything until I'm ready to cook again. No, that costs way too much. Instead, I'm going to try my hand at cooking for the week bright and early on Sunday mornings. It actually sounds really fun to me. And I'm looking forward to all of the yoga, reading, and documentary watching I'll be able to do after work as a result.

If there's one thing that studying Buddhism has taught me it's that something isn't worth doing if you generally hate it. Right now, I generally hate cooking dinner on weeknights. So I'm not going to do it. I hope Chris doesn't take it too personally, hahahaha. But if I make enough Indian food on Sunday I think she'll forgive me!

I know that there are a lot of vegans who don't really enjoy cooking or who try to cook as simple meals as possible. Are you one of those vegans? If so, do you have any advice for someone trying to simplify their kitchen schedules? I know I would benefit from your experience. Please share via the comments on this post. And thank you, as always, for reading.