I started writing for Spoon University during my freshman year of college. It seemed like the perfect marriage of two of my loves: writing and food. When I signed on for the challenge, I had no idea that I would get a career goal out of it. Spoon just sounded epic and I wanted in on it.
During my sophomore year of college, someone point blank asked me if food writing was what I wanted to do with my life. I was surprised to realize that I had never asked myself that question. But I think what’s even more interesting than my immediate epiphany that, yes, food writing was what I wanted to do, was the fact that I had never even considered it as a career path before.
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Why is it that our images of the adulthood are so often dominated by men and woman in suits or khakis, laboring over computer screens in their cubicles? Why is it that we don’t often associate our future career paths with our hobbies?
Why did I never consider food writing as an actual job until someone else brought it up?
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In a world where the job market is often difficult to enter, it’s easy to get intimated when thinking about post-grad plans. I have two years left of college and my mind is already racing about how to land a job and where I should begin to look.
But sometimes, it’s about letting the job come to you.
What are things that you enjoy doing? What are causes are you passionate about? Do you have a hobby or interest that you could use as inspiration for work? These are the critical questions that I’ve begun asking myself because I no longer think that work has to be grueling and lame.
Writing about food has made me understand that there are ways to make money doing what you enjoy. Yes, it’s work, and yes, it may not always be a party, but it’s possible.
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I grew up believing that work is work and play is play. But food writing has taught me that the lines are a little bit more blurred than I believed them to be.
Even if I don’t land a job in food journalism after I graduate, my experience in food writing has given me hope that I can find some type of job that involves my interests or passions. Work doesn’t have to be just work. It can be work and play, which turned my concept of a career on its head — in a good way.