October 9, 2000

Dear Anthony,

I have been in the process of quitting my job and enrolling in school full time at Buffalo State to pursue becoming a nutritionist! Yes, you read that correctly!

The company I was working for as a Food Scientist refused to allow me to resign even after I made multiple attempts...so we negotiated and settled on a leave of absence until January and at that point I will revisit resigning. Leaving the world of the food industry was the best thing I ever did and pursuing nutrition is amazing!! I still don't like sitting down to learn all of the "little details" but sometimes we have to do a few things we aren't thrilled about to do to get to where you want to go.

So after all of the analysis I have been doing for years, I decided to "take the plunge" into a new career. Thanks again for all your help and I'll keep you posted as time goes on...it is only going to take me two full-time semesters and two part-time semesters to be qualified to become a nutritionist and be licensed as an RD by the ADA (American Dietetic Association)...so by May of 2002 I will have a new career! Thanks, Anthony!

Keep in touch - I'll keep you posted on my progress!

Paula

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January 1, 2001

Dear Anthony,

Just wanted to let you know that everything is going well with my career change decision. I completed a 13 credit semester in nutrition with a 4.0 . . . I guess we chose the right career for me!

Thanks again for your help!

Paula

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June 2002

Hi Anthony,

I've been waiting until I had enough time to tell you all the details of where my new career is going but then I realized I might be waiting forever. :)

So, briefly, I decided not to take the job in DC with the Food Marketing Institute... it is too much of an "organized" environment, too many food safety responsibilities, not enough focus on nutrition. I might as well have just continued to be a food scientist and not pursued a degree in nutrition.

Then, in early April, I went to a meeting in Buffalo for Registered Dietitians, met a woman there and within two days I was hired by her. I started part-time before I even finished school. I graduated on May 11 and started working with her full-time on May 20. She had her own nutrition education business for the past ten years and in January she sold it to a Health Network My boss and the gentleman that owned the fitness center are co-directors of the Health and Wellness division.

Bottom line, I am teaching community nutrition classes to adults that range in age from 20 to 80 - I love the teaching part of the job even as stressful as it is at times. I am also responsible for helping to redesign the program which I can do, I'm good at but I'm not too invested in it at this point because Lynn and I are still talking about and pursuing leaving Buffalo. I may get involved in determining what we need to measure to prove the outcomes of our program (I'm not quite as interested in this part) but hopefully, hopefully, hopefully I will get the chance to do individual and group counseling because they are also discussing this as a possibility. They are also thinking of an Internet chat group to answer nutrition questions and I am interested in this because it plays into another one of my hobbies which is computers. So, I would get to teach, coach, and counsel...all of the things we talked about me being good at...like a duck in a pond...and being a people, people, people person. I did have one revelation about this...I am a people person when it comes to family, friends, and helping people with my knowledge but when it comes to coworkers I'm not as much of a people person and most times just prefer not to interact with them...funny, huh?

All that to say, I listened to you the night we visited, and I didn't compromise this time. I listened to the tape of our conversation again and realized the job in DC was not the best fit for me and miraculously something else fell into my life. Cosmic, isn't it??

As I mentioned earlier, we don't want to stay in Buffalo for very much longer so we are still actively job searching. However, for the time we are in Buffalo, being a Nutrition & Wellness Specialist is helping me to gain the knowledge and skills that I want to put on a resume to market and sell myself for a similar job in a different city in the near future.

So, that's it in a nutshell. I can't thank you enough for your help in this process!

Please write when you have some time. Take care and thanks again!

Paula