How Did I Get Here? Pt. I

June 2016. My first year as a Retail Sales Representative with The Hershey Company was coming to a close. It had been a mediocre one, because I wasn't invested and hadn't been for quite some time. Getting up before 6AM to seemingly pester unconcerned Walmart store managers about pallets of chocolate we both knew wouldn't sell through in the South Metro area wasn't what I had envisioned for myself post-grad. I had an apartment I was paying over $1000 per month for in Union City, GA of all places and my manager was growing frustrated with my performance. So I decided to quit. June 3, 2016 was my last day and I was disappointed in myself. I hadn't gained anything out the experience but a $2500 of relocation stipend I now had to repay in full. So until I moved out of my apartment I was job-searching, and cooking, and coaching basketball in the afternoons.  

At the time I naively thought I'd find another comparable job after briefly working part-time, be able to stay at home and save money for travel, sneakers, and whatever else I wanted to buy. Wrong, wrong as hell. The job market in Atlanta doesn't function this way. Transitioning out of sales into another industry is a tough switch as a young person with limited entry level experience. Emotionally, I was growing more frustrated, hopeless, and I was running out of money to maintain my current lifestyle. August couldn't come quickly enough. I needed to cancel my lease and get back home before I ran out of money. 

And that's when life's circumstances became really trying. My parents line of questioning was, "What are you planning to do for work?", "Where are you going?" when leaving the house, "When will you be home?" I hadn't spent more than 3 weeks consecutively at home since leaving for college in 2011 and everything was beginning to weigh on me. I planned to go to graduate school specifically to complete a graduate assistantship in men's basketball, my first love and passion.

By October 2016 I had gotten an acceptable score on the GRE, but not one response from a coach of any kind, in any division. Reaching out to people in my network wasn't gaining me traction either. And that was sign, a discouraging one that I couldn't ignore. Entry points are chiefly important in collegiate athletics. Programs don't just let kids off the street in, no matter how passionate or well-intentioned. As discouraging as everything had become, I looked at it all as a sign that I'd miss my chance at collegiate athletics and the Lord was ordering my steps in a different direction. 

But I was cooking WAY more, and growing into a chef, and my friends and peers were taking notice. That appreciation carried me through the toughest days and revealed another purpose for me. I found that TEACHING food, not just showing off my skills was important because skills and knowledge of food I'd had since childhood were foreign to the people I was encountering as a chef. Food is one of the easiest ways to improve someone's quality of life and it felt good to teach, and watch them learn and grow. Through the fall and the holidays I kept working my part-time job in food service which exposed me to many new ingredients, picked up Lyft driving, and continued assistant coaching varsity basketball. Those three things kept me away from snapchat, but I still would when I could. 

Fast forward 2017. Basketball season was coming to a close and the year had gotten off to a great, yet unfortunate start. One early January morning I was driving Lyft, another driver ran a stop sign, shattered the driver side window and door of my car and totaled it. If he had been going any faster I may not be here to write this, but the grace of God saved me from injury and death. The next month me and Cameron, my business partner and close friend, successfully completed our first full service catering event and got paid for it. That felt great and was much needed confirmation for this journey I found myself on. Everyone loves your food until they have to pay for it, but that night no one appeared dissatisfied with our effort, and Choose Joy Food Group had been created. 

By to March 2017. I'd been spending a lot of time with two of my close friends during this season of life and one was pushing me to brand my snapchat platform and develop a "curriculum" of sorts, with scheduled social media posts. I needed a branding, to update my instagram handle into something more fitting, and to be more intentional about what I was teaching. All of this legwork and social media rebranding lead to the birth of what you will find on this site, "When Life Hands You Lemons."

I chose tacos as my first lesson because I had gotten a tortilla press I was excited to break in. I was anxious how I'd be received as a self-taught chef, teaching others in an official capacity about food. But it went well, and the campaign lasted through the end of summer when I took another leap of faith, at Cameron's advisement into the hospitality industry as a chef with Bold American Catering + Design. I remember telling Cam to bet on himself and wait out the storm to find his footing in the industry, which he very much has. So I took some of my own advice and bet on myself being able to do the same. I was beyond nervous my first day, and my tooth was giving me hell, but I did well and adjusted to the role of Execution Chef very quickly. 

I was always watching and learning, which may be my best skill. So by November, I was trusted enough to "fire" food off-site for a wedding of over 100 people. And before that, I scored my first client as a private chef. I leaped and landed on my feet. All these developments were huge for me, because in the back of my mind I kept fighting doubt, fatigue from early mornings and over-drafted accounts, and some more self-doubt. By the end of November I had found footing in the food industry and had completed my second private dinner party, but I was missing from social media with no web-release date in sight...