It’s hard to be an outlier – someone who doesn’t make the same choices as those around them. Not only does that make it hard for you to fit in, but even feeling comfortable in your own skin can be a challenge. I used to feel this around friends who made their life about ticking all the boxes – a perfect job, marriage, family. Those things were never meaningful for me to chase.
I’m sharing this because in choosing to be a chef, you’ve made not an uncommon choice (plenty of people have chosen the same path), but an unconventional choice. Society tells you to pursue both career and domestic bliss, but doesn’t give you the handbook on balancing the two. Not everyone understands your position and that can make you feel isolated. Maybe you’ve coped like me – by finding people who share the same values as you: chefs do tend to hang around others from the same industry.
Here I want to acknowledge how much courage it takes to go against the grain. To stand your ground when someone questions the choices and sacrifices you make and having to do all that explaining. But let’s take a moment to applaud that we’ve chosen what makes us happy, chefs!