Positive Wonderful Stress

One year ago, I was frantically running around my kitchen, measuring out little sandwich baggies of cloves, ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon. I was making Orange Chai with Chocolate Chips for a competition only a month after getting my first ice cream maker. The week after my birthday, my friend Rachel had forwarded me an email about an Ice Cream Takedown and encouraged me to enter. When I enter something, I mean business. So, for the next few weeks (my very first weeks making ice cream), I'd leave work, come home, and go straight to the kitchen. The next morning, I'd wake up early to churn before heading into work. My social life for those few weeks revolved around having friends over to taste-test.

It was prepping for last year's competition that made me fall in love with ice cream making. The whole process was very stressful (mostly unnecessary and self-induced, I now realize), but it was the best kind of stress. It excited me and motivated me to keep going. When I talked about this feeling with my sister, she said "this is what it feels like to be passionate about something." And that's when I realized that this is the kind of stress that I want in my life. Lots of it. Lots of positive wonderful stress.

It's one year later, and the competition is tomorrow. I feel more confident, better prepared, and I'm so excited to stand at a table making single-serving friends with everyone who comes by for a taste. Won't you join me?

Get your tickets here!