I think this is the right month to finally write this note.
For the past year, I have been busy learning my new job, finding my rhythm as an instructor, and understanding what it really means to teach young adults. I have missed my guests at Harmons so much. To my dear customers and customer-friends from those days: I loved you, and I will always remember how much fun I had in every single class I taught. If you found me here, I hope you know that I miss you.
But this past year has also been a beautiful one.
I have loved teaching. I have loved growing new chefs and being part of their lives, even if only for a short time. Sometimes I wish I had longer with them, maybe a two-year program, like when I went to culinary school. But I am learning that babies fly away. I think I am a good chicken mother. I protect, I teach, I worry, I fluff the feathers, and then I have to watch them fly alone.
I miss them when they go. My anxious personality has not fully calmed down yet about how they are doing out there. Chef Tony, our director at the school, told me I will get used to it. I don't know yet. Maybe I will see after my next group.
This year I did not post as much as I wanted because, in the mornings, I was also chasing my grandson. And honestly, because I had more time, I spent a lot of it with my grandbabies. If I was not with them, I was learning Canvas, building lessons, creating activities, and trying to understand how to teach well.
I have thought so much about my own teachers this year. I respect them even more now. Walking in their shoes is not easy. My grandma was also a teacher, and I think I owe her so much. I wish I had told her.
Creating activities with my students and keeping them on their toes has kept me going. And that grandbaby kept me on my toes too. I am so happy I had the time to help him, to see him grow, and to hear him tell me, "Mama Peka, you are the bestest grandma in the world." That is a gift. That is a privilege.
When he started preschool in August, his speech was very delayed. Between everything my daughter and her husband did to help him, the teachers at school, and maybe my mornings with him too, something changed around February. Little by little, I stopped crawling on the floor with him and sounding out every word, and suddenly we were having full conversations. It was all in there. I think something just clicked.
My work at MTECH has been great. It has given me time to teach, to grow, to write, and to think about what I want my website project to become.
So yes, I miss Harmons. I miss my guests. I miss the classes and the familiar faces. But I also know that we need new chefs in kitchens, chefs with good attitude, enthusiasm, curiosity, and heart. And I think I can help pass that along.
So welcome back to my kitchen.
Read, cook, remember, learn, and enjoy some recipes.
✦