If Julia Child were alive today she’d be 100 years old.  It’s quite weird to think that someone I never met had such a dramatic impact on my life.  Five years ago I was in a very different place.  I was struggling to find meaning in my life and joy in my career.  I spent most of my 20s agonizing over my job.  I earned a good living but was desperate for more.  I wasn’t one of those kids who always knew what she wanted to be when she grew up.  I was an English major, not because I wanted to be a professor but because I loved reading and writing.  After receiving my bachelors degree I moved on to IT training because it seemed like a good way to make a living. But once the memories of student life were fading and I had settled into my profession, I was unhappy.  I became obsessed with the notion that I’d never truly be happy until I was passionate about my work.  But nothing fit the bill. Over the next several years I went back to school multiple times and always quit soon after I realized I was headed in the wrong direction yet again. I frustrated loved ones (and myself) with my indecisiveness. But I knew there was something out there, that ONE THING that would bring me satisfaction. When I read Julia Child’s My Life in France, everything changed.  Not overnight.  It was a gradual, slow change. [Read more...]