There are things about trading in a 9-to-5 for a 4am-to-8pm to follow a dream that you just don't know going in. I mean, you know you'll have to work really hard for really long hours but you don't really, truly, totally, 100% understand that your body will ache as only the bodies of people who spend their days breaking up slabs of concrete or planting rice can.
Then suddenly you're in the middle of it and clarity settles in and you learn fast how good you are at things you never thought much about before such as:
- Working with temperamental equipment or no equipment if necessary
- Working through cuts, nicks, scratches and burns at 5 in the morning
- Redoing what you've just spent hours doing such as re-baking dozens of cupcakes after the last few batches suffer an unfortunate accident
- Never seeing your loved ones because you just have no time for them anymore
- Standing for hours with foot and back pain (On a friend's suggestion, I got some interesting new shoes. More on this later if they work.)
- Going to bed at 8:30 or 9 p.m. (yup, you can pretty much forget watching TV)
- Subsisting on one meal a day, if you're lucky
- Working in tight spaces
- Meeting and greeting new people every day and answering questions with a smile
- At staying on top of paperwork, names, numbers, e-mails and voicemails
- At giving and taking directions
I guess what I'm trying to say is you learn how to work with or around things. What's that you say? You can do all of that? Great! Need a job?
Kidding!
