It's been 17 years since I arrived in the United States, during this time I have submitted numerous resumes for various different jobs. When the day comes that I receive an interview I always get the same response to that resume - "You certainly have done a lot in your life". I used to find myself making apologies for that, but now at 62 years of age I realize that I should not have been apologizing, but rather the opposite. I left school at 16 years of age and have done many different things from being a telephone engineer, police office, criminal defense attorney's clerk to IT professional, along the way though I was able to satisfy my four greatest passions, cooking, photography, writing and in recent months gardening.
In a recent conversation with an exceptional marketing expert, I was asked to consider my life and define my 'Greatest Worth', I had to have my friend explain that phrase, what did he mean? On further examination of these two words I came up with my answer, my passion for food that had lead me to my own restaurant and bakery in the '80's, to my work in Spain, where I lived for 7 years, writing and giving cooking lessons. Finally studying foodstyling which, combined with many years of photography, allowed me to produce the food photographs for a local monthly glossy magazine.
There is no doubt that my years as an IT professional were financially more lucrative, but being able to return to my four passions makes me very happy, albeit considerably poorer financially. I am richer inside and my health is more stable because of the lack of stress.