Day 2 of #FeelGoodBlogging Challenge- Finding my Passion. It’s a pretty long story so I tried to summarize it here. I hope it inspires you to find yours.
1990-2003
For as long as I can remember, I loved writing- poetry, short stories, journaling, etc. My Senior High school English teacher was the first person to support and encourage my writing.
Writing was more of a hobby so my father, who is a furniture designer, encouraged me to take interior design, architecture and Auto CAD in High School, to possibly have a family business.
After taking those classes, even though I enjoyed them, I had a gut wrenching feeling that career was a bad idea.
Summer 2003
I got myself an internship, when it wasn’t even available, at my local newspaper. Turned out that the Editor appreciated my persistence. They gave me the opportunity to go on a few calls, a few interviews and write fluff pieces.
Although it was a great experience and I enjoyed the newspaper, I still had that gut feeling it wasn’t for me. I didn’t know what else to do at the time so my father suggested getting a job as a Barista at my local indy cafe’. He’s a coffee addict and I had never really drunk coffee before then, so why not?
2004-2006
When it was time to start college, it was easy to decide on getting my English degree. Unfortunately, I didn’t know exactly WHAT I was going to do with it. I knew I didn’t want to be an English teacher or necessarily a novelist either.
2006-2009
Then, I discovered Copywriting. No, not copyright (c)
I continued working as a Barista part-time and read everything I could get my hands on about Copywriting. I practiced all the different ways copy was used in marketing. Then, I started freelance copywriting. Specifically, web copy.
2009-2012
I picked up freelance clients here and there, but I was really enjoying being a Barista and took on more hours.
Coffee became my new passion so I started a specialty coffee blog to educate coffee enthusiasts without being pretentious.
2012-2013
As much as I loved freelancing and coffee, I couldn’t decide between which to focus on, so when I got an opportunity to run a cafe’, I took the chance.
I learned a lot and did basically everything except for the finances. It was a start-up and very odd concept so due to unforeseen circumstances, I was gone after only nine months.
But it prepared me…
2013-2014
I had schemed about having my own cafe’ but I never dreamed of it actually happening.
Ok, so it wasn’t a cafe’.
Instead, my boyfriend (of seven years 🙂 ) found out a stand-alone coffee drive-thru was for sale and helped me get the funds for it! The situation happened was a much lower risk business. Normally these kiosk aren’t that cheap.
The location used to be great, but it took a huge hit when Kmart left the shopping center and there was only a year left on the lease, so we decided to ride it out.
Right before the lease was up, we knew we couldn’t renew it.
We learned a lot about business, myself and met so many wonderful customers and enjoyed it more than we thought we would. Then, we found out another coffee kiosk was for sale, in a much better location and jumped on that.
2014…
It’s been a year at the new coffee drive-thru and been a wonderful roller coaster ride.
The thing I’ve finally realized through all this is my underlying passion inspiring others and getting very organized and focused with time management. Yet, I still love serving people smiles and great coffee.
Which brings me to this transition of this site.