Wednesday, September 24, 2014

The Lovers, The Dreamers and Me.

You know that time, when you had that dream that you never thought would come true? You spent all of your days and nights dreaming about what life might be like if only you could reach out and grab ahold of it. From the time we are small children, our parents would ask us, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" And we would always answer honestly and with great conviction. A ballerina. An astronaut. A cowboy. And our parents would always smile and reply, "You can be whatever you want to be." But it always changes. We grow up, go to college, we start racking up student loans and bills and all of a sudden "what we want to be when we grow up" turns into "what I need to be when I grow up so I don't end up living in a box on the street". And just like that, we lose that childlike ambition to become exactly who we are, who we dream to be.



It only took me 30 years of life, 4 years of college, multiple career changes and a huge episode of personal self-acceptance to realize that I wasn't who I dreamed of being. I had lost sight of my own happiness. I found myself one day, driving to work like I always did, at the traffic light that turns into my job. The light turned green, but I didn't go. I was frozen in a moment of epiphanous glory. Amongst all of the honking it hit me like that semi-truck almost did... I have to make a change. I didn't want to got lost in the daily grind, just trying to make a living. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate my job... it just wasn't me. I wasn't passionate about it. I knew that if I wanted my dream to come true, I couldn't just sit idly by waiting for the dream fairy to swoop in and drop it right in my lap. So that day, I put a plan into action to make my dream come true.



After months of hard work, my dream has now kicked into high gear. I took the biggest risk of all by quitting my job, a career that I have been quite successful in for many years, to work at a restaurant so that I can completely immerse myself in the industry that I will now be in for the rest of my working life. And I can proudly say that after taking that first incredibly terrifying step, everything else is just falling into place. I am officially signed up to take my Level 1 exam for the Court of Master Sommeliers (the first in a series of 4), I began training at the new restaurant and I attended my first ever blind tasting study group with some wonderful people who are at various levels in their MS training.



So my message to all of you is that age old cliche... Never lose sight of your dreams. You are never too old, too scared, too stable to make a change. If I can do it, anyone can.



In Vino Veritas!



And here is our pal Kermit for some inspiration to never stop chasing rainbows...