Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Welcome!

It is hard to be an academic. The schooling is long and exhausting, the competition is fierce, and the job prospects are slim. Then, if you do find a job, assuming it's more secure than the nightmare that is being an Adjunct professor, you have the joy of teaching uninspired students and the pressure to publish. Intellectually rewarding- yes. Emotionally fulfilling- perversely. Easy- absolutely not.

I spent seven years going to school to get, first a Bachelors, and then a Masters degree, in Literature. I love books. I love reading them, I love buying them, I love researching them, I love talking about them, and, hopefully, someday, writing them. But I also have a yearning for visible creativity, challenges I know I can master, and short term successes. And, frankly, I hate being an Adjunct. So I've decided to become a baker instead.

The shift is less dramatic than it sounds. My life goal for a long time has been to be a writer, and I thought I'd just teach Literature to pay the bills while working on my novels. Any other possibilities didn't really stand out to me.

I've been baking since I was a child. I used to help my mother in the kitchen and I've been baking holiday cookies, with her and on my own for a few years now. Then I tried my hand at baking bread, and it was good. And then I slipped into pies and cakes and it was love.

When I found myself daydreaming about cakes I'd like to make, smiling wistfully to myself, I realized that maybe there was another path for me, one that would give me a creative outlet, a higher likelihood of job security, and a wider range of potential jobs. The moment I started seriously considering going back to school, not for literature, but for baking, I felt a great joy and contentment settle over me. My life looked much more hopeful, and tasty, and so the decision was made.

I already know I can bake yummy things, now I just need to hone my skills and learn the all important art of decorating.

I created this blog to record my journey through the kitchen. I'll share my successes, and, if I'm feeling brave, my failures. Hopefully this will show the progress of a gifted novice hobby baker to the rank of successful businesswoman, or, at least, a happy employee baking for a nice company, with a large personal kitchen of her own waiting for when the shift ends.

Wish me luck- and cupcakes!

1 comment:

  1. Congrats on starting the blog and many, many wishes for success along the baking trail!

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