Most people might think that baking their own birthday cake is unfair or simply not right – someone else is supposed to do it, right? Well, not me. I actually want to make my own cake – not only do I enjoy the baking part, but I get to make whatever I want, decorate it how I want, and eat it too. Yes, that’s right folks, tomorrow I’ll have my cake and eat it too. (Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and roasted pecans – to be precise!)

This is not what this post is entirely about though. I wanted to share some gratitude for this past year of career-transition that I have experienced:

My birthday is tomorrow and normally I don’t make a big splash about this, but this year has been a HUGE year for me. And more so than usual, this particular time marks a bigger celebration for me than just time passing. As you have been reading, I graduated from pastry school this year and now I work in the industry. It feels simple to write that now, but it took me a long time to get here (and it’s still just the beginning).

This year started out in an “office job” that was coming to an end (my department was closed by the new CEO who joined the company the previous fall). Our department was given adequate notice of this but it was still a shocking reveal, merely two days after my birthday, last year.

The previous year to that, I remember leaving the previous job I had and it coincidentally worked out that my last day was exactly on my birthday. It was a very unusual and intense week, because I finished one job and started a new one in the same week. It was a tough time for me that fall/year, I remember feeling so much stress on my birthday. I had even considered pastry school then, as a possible exit from my communications career then. As I shared in previous posts, it was not the right time.

At any rate, it took a few years but I did finally make the career change I thought about for so long.

Tomorrow I will go to work (before many of you are likely awake) and I get bake on my birthday. And it is also an extremely busy time for the food industry now, everyone is celebrating the holidays and wants dessert (naturally)!

I am grateful this year, more than ever, for the opportunities I have been given – and for the ones I made happen. This has been a year full of leaps of faith and I look forward to what the next year beholds.

Happy Birthday to me!

PS. Because we are so busy, and holiday celebrations are frequent, I celebrated my birthday last month by organizing a cooking class for my friends. If you missed that post, you can read about it here.