Fully Booked ⭐

I started this newsletter in March 2023. Right as my farm box business was winding down, I was looking for an outlet to keep talking about food systems and share the beauty and the importance of eating local food.

Over the last two years, I have bopped around trying to figure out my career after the independence of running my own business. This newsletter has always been a place to share what I have been thinking about, my travels, my explorations in the kitchen, and a place to help me find my voice.

What began as a dedication to a more sustainable food future has also slowly evolved into a platform to share my love for beans, which, to me, is one of the strongest ways to achieve a more sustainable food future.

So what do I mean when I say I am fully booked? After being laid off in the summer of 2024, I had trouble finding my place in this bizarre employment landscape. Beyond my personal struggles of not being sure where I fit in, it was a terrible time to be looking for work. I spent a year in an endless cycle of interviews, refreshing my email, having conversations, getting my hopes up, and feeling crushed when I didn’t get the job.

In June, I started working part-time for the Ceres Food Film Festival as a producer, and I felt like things were finally falling into place. I just needed one more part-time gig to end the exhausting search.

I have always loved to tell stories through video. In 2014, I made this video about my grandpa Hal, and then went on to create a blind dating show, setting up friends of mine with strangers and filming the results.

My friend Monica and I had a project called Mood Ring Productions, where we created short-form videos for artists and events, long before iPhone cameras were reliable and editing software was clunky.

I left for grad school not too long after that because I didn’t think I could ever make it as a creative person in New York.

I graduated from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies with a Master’s in Economics in 2017 and started my career in the wrong direction.

It has taken me