Rach Bakes & Stuff. . .: Hello there.. I quit my job

Why hello there.... It has been a very long time, and I am so sorry for that. Where have I been? Working at whole foods, very busy, and not loving it .Ok.... here it is.I left whole foods, and am currently job searching. Working as a baker was not at all like school or baking at home. In the beginning I absolutely loved it, I was having fun, I felt comfortable, everyone there was super nice. Seriously there are some of the most amazing people at whole foods, particularly in the bakery. They are such amazing people, that even though I live 40 minutes away and don't shop at whole foods, I will go there to visit them.

Ok now let me get into the details. My schedule was 5 am to 1pm or 8 am to 4 pm. I didn't mind the fluctuation too much. It was a little difficult though going from 5 am to 8 am then back to 5 am with my sleep schedule, because on days I had to be there for 5 am I had to wake up at 3 am. It didn't bother me so much except with the husband working nights, him working 6 pm to 6 am... and he is deploying February 1st. He will be gone for 6 months... can you blame me for wanting to somewhat be on his schedule and spend some time with him? ..

It was super repetitive.... the same mixes basically each day, pound cakes, corn bread, muffins, bunt cakes. I mean it was fun at the beginning, but I started to crave more creative freedom, new things to do. When I wanted to make new things.... it would sound like a great idea, but then you would have to try getting a sign done by the store artist. It just wasn't what I expected. My partner Dre, she was so super nice and she is an amazing person. I can tell when she talks about when she went to school or or with chocolate work how excited and passionate she is about it and those things. When we were at work though it was just work, no passion in what we do almost every day. I was losing my passion. I didn't want to bake at home. That is another reason there haven't been any blog posts. I haven't been wanting to bake. I have been literally hating it. I made 3 pies for thanksgiving, only one was a homemade pie... the other two were frozen. I did zero Christmas baking. YES ZERO CHRISTMAS BAKING.

I was waiting until the holidays were over to put in a notice.... but it got to the point where I didn't want to lose my complete passion, so i did what i had to do. My partners Andrea and Haley (she did all of the tea cookies) were the first ones I talked to about it, and let them know where my mind ones. Surprisingly they weren't surprised and they understood. Those girls are two of the most amazing people I have worked with. I got to know them so well in such a short time. When I gave my notice the team leader and assistant team leader were super understanding and still made me feel like I was an amazing part of the team up until the last moment I was there. They made me feel like such a great part of it that it made leaving actually quite difficult, but I knew I had to do it.

I have only ever worked within the realm of food ever since I was 15 years old. I was almost wondering what else is out there. I was feeling like a failure for having gone to school for culinary and now not wanting to do it professionally. I honestly don't think I could ever be happy doing it as a job unless I owned my own bakery and was responsible for what was created or unless I was teaching others and had the opportunity to do/ show different things.

Even while in school I had always had thoughts of pursuing a nursing degree. I love helping people. I want to do something meaningful with my life on a large scale. I am seriously contemplating it. I want to see if I can do volunteering at a hospital first though, to make sure it is really what I want to do before pursing a very time consuming and expensive degree, I don't want to make the same mistake twice. Well I suppose I wouldn't say my culinary degree is a mistake, as I do love being creative with food, I learned a lot, and met some amazing people in school.

In the mean time though, I have been debating on finding a job completely out of food, like something retail like (I have never done retail) or something involving another love I have had such as makeup/hair/beauty. I wanted to apply for places such as ulta, sephora, jc penny/macys/nordstrom makeup counters. I think that would be something fun to do, but then I always wonder if you need to have a cosmetology license to do that. With as intrigued with makeup that I am, I wouldn't go to school for that. I told myself if I go back to school it will be for a skill or trade that you need to go to school for. Yes it helps going to school for culinary or cosmetology, it gives you accreditation, but those are things you can learn on your own. Those are skills that can be self taught, something such as the medical career field, lawyers, accounting, teaching, those are things that not necessarily can be self taught..

And then I think about serving again... while in the mean time of going back to school. I hated that serving was so unreliable at times.... unpredictable... shitty people, but then you got really great people, and when it was good, it was good. Flexible hours, money in hand that night. But then most restaurants are a ways from where I live.... everything really unless you work on the base. I suppose my mind is flooded right now with life decisions and ambitions. I am 23 years old almost 24, and I feel like I need to get my shit together and my wants soon, because I am reaching that peak in life, when people are settling into their careers, and here I am still trying to figure shit out.

Well here are some photos from my last day at whole foods but miraculously i am not in any of these.