My Piece - 34th Birthday - Finding My Calling

The year I turned 30 I wrote a post reflecting on my life up to that point. I realized that I had accomplished all of the goals that I had set for myself in college, but I hadn't set new ones. I predicted that I would spend my 30s pursuing interests rather than requirements. But where did that leave me? I had a nagging feeling that I should find my calling. I had a young toddler at home so I wasn't in a situation to pursue anything professionally but I still wanted to answer the question,"What should I be when I grow up?" Accounting is a practical and respectable occupation that makes decent money but I knew that my passion didn't lie in that field.

My government teacher in high school tried to steer me away from accounting to something else, like English or history but I wanted a degree that I could use by itself with no graduate degree required, and I didn't want to teach school and I knew I wouldn't be a best-selling author. So, I stayed on the accounting course. I got discouraged along the way, spending hours taking interest surveys in the career counselor's office. Every survey I took pointed me toward accounting or law. In fact, I just took the "Who Am I Meant to Be?" quiz in this month's Oprah magazine. My result was Style # 6 - Striving to Be Secure which reads, "Careers in government, finance, the military, law enforcement, and product manufacturing are strong options for you." Nothing else presented itself as compelling enough to change majors.

Fast forward 13+ years to today. I was basting a quilt in an effort to get my current project off of my craft table so I could set out the card projects that I'm teaching at tomorrow night's coffee group. I had my a-ha moment.

Alain de Botton wrote in The Oprah Magazine, "One of the first questions we face when we meet new acquaintances is 'What do you do?' And according to how we answer, they will either be delighted to see us or look with embarrassment at their watches and shuffle away. The fact is, we live in a world where we are defined almost entirely by our work." I am a stay-at-home mom but Sophia is five now so I was searching for an answer to the "What do you do?" question. Finally I've found it. It's not something you can major in. It's something gained through life experience. It was something that I actually wrote in my Facebook and blogger profiles. "I enjoy making things...quilts, papercrafts, food...and teaching others how to make things too." I am a teacher, usually of women. I was recently hired by MCEC (Military Child Education Coalition) to be on a Parent to Parent team. We teach parents how to be advocates in their children's education. It is a part-time job.

Kenny will be disappointed. He thought he married a sugar mama with a CPA and MBA. I still have my initials, but unless I can find the connections to be the next Oprah or Martha or Julia Child, I'll continue to find satisfaction in teaching my friends, neighbors, military parents, and whoever wants to read my blog. How satisfying it is to finally find my calling!

Tweet

What's Cooking? - Crunchy Cucumber Rounds

My friend Jennifer that I used to quilt with at Fort Irwin requested this recipe so I thought I would share it here.

1 cup finely chopped red apple

1 can (8 ounces) unsweetened crushed pineapple, drained

1/4 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted

1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 medium cucumbers

In a small bowl, combine the apple, pineapple, pecans, sour cream, and salt. Cover and refrigerate until chilled. To score cucumbers, cut lengthwise strips through peel. Cut each cucumber into 16 slices. Blot with paper towels to remove moisture. Spoon 1 teaspoon apple mixture onto each slice.

Yield: 4 dozen

Tweet

My Bookshelf - Julia Child Books

Everybody in my house has had the flu off and on for the last couple of weeks so I've had a chance to get lots of good reading in.

I don't want to say too much about Julia Child's My Life in France because it is my book club's December selection and I've jumped ahead. I will say that I liked it so much that I went ahead and read Julie Powell's Julie & Julia and I have Mastering the Art of French Cooking waiting for me at the library.

Julia Child didn't go to culinary school until she was 37 years old. When she was a newlywed just arriving in France when she was 36 years old she didn't even know what a shallot was. How inspiring! We don't have to find our life's calling in our teens or our 20s or take a million classes when we're preschoolers. We can be 30 something and still discover something amazing to do with our lives.

Julia Child was perhaps a bit of a late bloomer but she had led a productive life up until the time she found her calling. Julie Powell was 29 and floundering when she began her Julie & Julia project. It ended up being the little project that would transform her from a secretary into an author and her book would eventually be made into a movie, which is also inspiring.

Perhaps my life's calling is close at hand, waiting to be discovered. (I am turning 34 this week so I'm thinking about these things.) It of course can't be cooking my way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking because it has already been done and because I'm a vegetarian so it would be impossible. Hats off to Julie for doing it though because many of the recipe descriptions were appalling. Any meat eaters feel like extracting some beef marrow and using it in a recipe? Anybody even want to eat anything like that?

I'm traveling to Texas this week to train for a new part time job. When I come back I plan on sampling some of Julia's recipes that are vegetarian friendly. I think Julie and Julia would scoff at me (don't think they thought much of vegetarians), but Julia mourned that her (multi-page) French bread recipe was the one she worked on the hardest but was tried by the fewest people. Perhaps I'll start there.

Tweet