The Season of Change
These days, Fall is ushered in by Starbucks instead of the actual Autumnal Equinox, and it is always a month too soon. This year, the Autumnal Equinox is on September 22nd. Still, Starbucks has already rolled out Pumpkin Spice everything, Dunkin Donuts also jumped on the early train of Pumpkin Spice, and I’m sure if I were to find a local coffee shop in my new town, I would discover Pumpkin Spice everything in their menus. I have never really been a fan of Pumpkin Spice coffee, but I have always been a fan of Fall. Growing up in the Northeast, this time of year always revolved around a new school wardrobe, new lunchboxes, and new pencil cases. School always started on the Tuesday after Labor Day, never earlier. When I moved a bit further south to Pennsylvania, my kids usually started school the last week of August and I also continued the tradition of new school wardrobe with them around this time of year. Even when we moved to Tennessee, my little chickens started College right about now. However, the weather doesn’t quite signal Autumn in Tennessee until Novemberish, but you can always count on Starbucks to remind you that it’s Fall.
When I woke up this morning, I opened my Timehop app, which always reminds me that time keeps marching on. I’ve forgotten so many things from the past, and I was again reminded that this time of year is always a season of change for me. I know I’ve written about this subject before, but bear with me.
September 1991 – My first baby chicken was born.
October 1992 – My second baby chicken was born.
September 2011 – We moved into the house we had started building in Tennessee while still living in Pennsylvania. That move began with us moving from Pennsylvania in July 2011 and living in an apartment for a few months. It was a slow transition into the slower life of the South. Like every house I move into, I swear it’s the very last move I’ll ever make. Boy, was I wrong.
August 2012 – I started Culinary School, a lifelong dream. I was 45 years old, beginning a whole new career. I ignored every fiber in my soul, screaming at me that I was too old. I took my seat next to a pile of 20-somethings and soaked up everything I needed to know. I realized school was far easier when you were 45 vs. 20, and I thrived.
September 2013 – After being a Culinary School dropout and working in a French restaurant for a hot minute, I realized a lifelong dream of opening my bakery. With the support and encouragement of my ever-patient husband, I opened the doors to flour. sugar. eggs. We specialized in hand-rolled croissants, and I worked seven days a week, 12 hours a day. It was exhausting and fulfilling in the beginning, and I was living on a cloud until I wasn’t.
September 2014 – I closed my little bakery. My dream was taking the ability to use my thumbs, which seem pretty necessary appendages to have, so I closed the doors and slipped into a depression. A mental state that I wasn’t familiar with, and it was a dark time for me. I took up running and writing, the only things that seemed to help my mind. It was when I started this silly little blog and discovered I could do something else, semi-well, even though it didn’t pay, which was a problem. That’s when my husband and I started our stints as bartenders in a hotel bar in downtown Nashville, and we were quite the team. We did that for a year or so, and I’m pretty sure we will never do it again.
September 2016 – I once again had to reinvent myself, and that’s when I started my career as a VIP manager for the company I work for now. I eventually worked my way up to Tour Manager and have taken tours around the world, including all of the US and Canada, Australia, South Africa, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. These are places I never thought I’d visit, and they are memories for a lifetime.
September 2019 – I released my book Frank (if you want to purchase a copy, email me here, and I’ll gladly send you one). In the Bingo card of Gina’s life, that is one of many things I never realized was a possibility.
As I look back at all those years, I realize it is quite a little life, and I’m proud of it all. But, as I fast forward to this Fall, I realize change has come once again. In a week or so, we will move into our house, which has taken just over a year to build. It will be the sixth house my husband and I have built together and separately. It’s a lot of houses for someone who hates the process of building a house but is married to someone who loves the process. Like every move, I am sticking with my mantra of “they will take me out of this house in a coffin”.
I am looking forward to ushering in the Autumnal Equinox on my porch with a cup of coffee and, hopefully, a sweater because the temperature will be lower than the 100s we are currently enjoying.
Through the years, while I’ve hated change so much, I’ve come to learn that good things can come from change, and mostly good things come from the Fall Season—not just Pumpkin Spiced coffee, but real soul-changing change. I look forward to this season of change and hope that wherever you are, you can enjoy it.