My Story
There is no path until you walk it.
I once heard Ethan Hawke say that in a TED talk and it really stuck with me. You see, not long ago, my path only existed in my dreams. Not the path I was walking on. The path I was meant to be on.
I was 44 years old with a successful career as an engineer in Silicon Valley. I worked at Google and, most recently, at Facebook when I felt a calling to leave the well-beaten path of the tech world and venture onto a new, less-trodden path. That makes it sound a lot easier of a decision than it actually was. In truth, I wrestled with the decision to walk away from my career in tech for over a year, maybe longer. There were many conversations with my wife, my close friends, and my therapist, all encouraging me to follow my heart. I just need to listen. It got easier to listen over time, not only to their supportive advice but to the voice inside of me for what started as a whisper was getting louder by the day and I knew it would soon be deafening.
The voice was getting louder, but what was it saying?
As helpful as people were, I had to listen carefully to the voice inside me and pay attention to where my curiosity and energy were naturally drawn to in my life. To what brought me joy.
This is what I became aware of ...
For the past few years, I volunteered at a nonprofit called Hope's Corner which serves meals to those in need. Every Saturday morning, my son and I would go to Hope's Corner and serve breakfast, and afterward, walk to Pete's Coffee for a coffee and a treat. It became the best part of my week.
At home, I read books. Memoirs were my genre of choice. I gravitated to memoirs written by chefs. I was fascinated by chefs' journeys and their tales from the kitchen.
I consumed cooking shows like Chef's Table on Netflix. Again, it was their stories that I was drawn to (I wasn't much for cooking competition shows). Their creativity and the way they expressed themselves through food were so inspiring. I loved how they brought people together through food, sharing not merely what they created, but a piece of themselves. It was beautiful.
With the loving support of my wife, I applied to the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, California, and to my surprise, they offered me admission. My adventures in culinary school as a 44-year-old student amongst 20-somethings are enough to write a book (maybe I will someday), but it's sufficed to say that I loved every minute of it.
Fast forward to today. I now cook at a Micheline-star restaurant in Woodside, California, and I'm the president of Hope's Corner. I'm also dipping my toe in the water as an independent chef. More on that to come.
In the meantime, I hope you find what you seek on your own path. As Rumi put it, what you seek is seeking you.
Photo credit: The photo was taken by my friend, Will, on a canoe trip in one of my favorite places in the world - Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada.