Do what you love

Hello there friends!

I don't have any recipes to share with you today, but I definitely will soon.

{SPOILER ALERT: I'm thinking home-made pop tarts...}

But I would like to take some time and pass on some words of advice, and a story.

I have always loved baking. When I was in middle school, and I got off that bus, I would always run straight to my house and fire up the oven to make a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies.

I would feed them to my family, my neighbors, and my friends.

Now, I don't really know what really sparked my initial interest in baking. I literally have no idea. There wasn't a huge amount of baking already going on in my house, and it's not like I was watching the Food Network instead of Disney Channel. 

I would say it was my love for food, but I am and always have been a picky eater.

But once I got in the kitchen and started baking, I knew I loved it.

I don't think you really need a reason why you love something. 

If you love it, you love it. It just is.

Last weekend, I made a bunch of cupcakes for the choir at church.

I attached a little business card to the box they were individually packaged in, not really thinking anything of it. {Other than it's probably not very nice to be advertising in church...}

But later that Sunday, and the week after, I had calls and e-mails telling me how great they were. 

I know that the treats I make are good, because I always taste them [My chef always says to never serve something you're not proud of], but hearing it from someone else gets me on a whole new level.

Then I got calls and emails from people asking me to bake them more treats, and they would pay me!

This is a whole new thing for me. This is one of my dreams. 

I have always wanted this for me, but I didn't think it would happen until I'm older. 

I thought I'd have to go off to college or something before that happened.

But I am getting paid for my sweets now, and I'm seventeen years old!

And don't they look good?

I am so happy doing what I'm doing. I never dread making four dozen cookies. It's a big number, and I don't even care how long it takes. I enjoy every single minute of baking, and it makes me so so so so so happy.

If you're still reading this, you rock. 

And if you're still reading this, I want to pass on some knowledge to you. 

Do what you love and love what you do.

I know that's been said a lot, and I know I'm young and pretty dumb, but you need to absolutely love what you do, every second of every day, and I guarantee your happiness will increase.

Stay hungry!

Love, Emily