Camacho Watcho

Last night was truly a new experience. I spent the afternoon and evening working in a professional kitchen to experience the pace, heat and rigor of being a professional chef…and I got to experience it all.

Let me backtrack just a bit. As you may or may not know, I have recently left my corporate job to seek and discover what I want to be when I grow up. You might say, “but you’ve been in that job for eight years and, uh…not sure if you’ve looked in the mirror recently…but you are grown up.” Point taken. But a couple years ago I starting thinking about other things I could do that would allow me to learn new skills and to “do” something or “make” something that I could be proud of. At least, that’s how I’ve come to think of it. If you try to get me to explain further than that, I’m at a loss. I’m still on the road to discovery so I’ll let you know how it goes.

Although this desire has been a topic of many conversations with my husband, about a month ago we agreed that it was time. I put in my notice at work and then my last day came and went. I won’t deny that there was definitely a sadness that came over me when I initially said I was leaving. All I had ever known in the professional sense was how to be a human resources professional, and that piece of me was ending. Obviously I learned so many valuable lessons in that role and I am certain that I will use that knowledge every day going forward, but it was still a feeling that I was losing part of my identity. But I got over it…it’s time to move on.

So these days I am doing some career exploration…writing, photography, culinary arts, a combination of several interests, who knows…those are just some of my ideas. My plan is to talk to as many people as I can in these fields and others and, hopefully, experience the work environments too. I’m not sure what direction this will take me, but I know I’m happy doing it – and that matters.

So this takes me to the present day. As I mentioned, last night I worked in a professional kitchen. Long hours on my feet with the hot oven at my back…and I loved it! Although it was mainly prep work, clean up and some plating of the seafood station, I had a great time. I met a lot of fantastic people (whom I quizzed with question after question) and luckily I still have all my fingers accounted for (those knives are sharp!). I go back today to continue the experience, and I am definitely looking forward to it!

Oh, by the way – if you have any ideas or people you think I should talk to in this journey…I’d love to hear about it!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 8:06 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.