This is my longest title yet, and this might be a bit of a bore for some of you, but as a hopeless romantic I had to share this.

I was listening to the audiobook version of “unreasonable hospitality” today. A book I’ve taken so many lessons from, and a book that is my North Star when I’m feeling a bit lost. It’s interesting how I’ve read this book, and listened to it countless times, but today I heard it a bit different.

In this chapter of the book, chapter 2, Will talks about going to the four seasons as a kid, and having such an experience that he left there knowing what he wanted to do for a career. After that he talks about the story of his parents, both who worked in hospitality, and how they met, or maybe reconnected would be a good way to put it.

At the time his dad was working for skychefs, the catering company for American Airlines. The year is 1968 and his mom is a stewardess, you know that crummy word they used to call flight attendants back when they had to be single women and maintain a certain weight?

Anyway, both his parents were from Boston and had thick accents to prove it, an accent that stood out in phoenix where they met. One day a colleague approached his dad and said “Hey Frank, there’s a woman on the plane that speaks the same language as you” referring of course to the Boston accent.

The two connected and Will’s dad recognized his mom right away, as it turned out they had gone to the same grade school, where he’d nursed an enormous 4th grade crush on her. She had no recollection of him whatsoever. He’d lost her when she disappeared in middle school. Her mom had passed away and she moved to Upstate New York to live with family. The two fell madly in love, which was complicated by his dads three years of army service in Vietnam, and the fact that both of them were engaged to other people when they met. They got married in 1973.

His dad no longer worked for sky chefs, and things had changed so his mom got to keep her job despite being married. She traveled the world and he was a regional manager for a casual restaurant chain. They moved to sleepy hollow New York and when Will was born his cousin moved in to help take care of him with their busy schedule.

I’m not going to continue with the whole story because I’m sure none of you give a shit, but one day Will’s mom dropped a cup of coffee on a flight, which had never happened before, a few weeks later it happened again. After a few months of doctors appointments, she was diagnosed with brain cancer. His dad never left her side, continued to work, and take care of her and Will. In a lot of ways it’s a story of true unconditional love.

Listening to this story gave me the chills, meeting again after all those years, him remembering his crush, her having no idea who he was. All of it was such a perfect love story. One I hope to be able to tell of my own love some day, and in some ways there are people I could tell almost the exact same story about.

I love this story, and this book. This book has always been a guide when I’m struggling to understand my wants and needs professionally.

The decision of going back to Alcove is one I still have yet to officially make. Going back doesn’t always feel like it makes sense, but could also be an opportunity to rebuild.

I’ve been speaking with the COO of another hospitality group in the Boston area, and today he asked me what I was looking for, which for a moment sent me into a spiral.

Truth be told, I’m looking for the opportunity to inspire people, to make magic in a world that so desperately needs it. I want to help lead people to what it is that they love, and want to do as a career, in a way that would make them feel fulfilled, but I don’t think that’s a position. So the real answer is I want the opportunity to lead a team of hospitality professionals, who care about hospitality, who want to make an impact through it.

Author Simon Sinek says he wants a world where people wake up feeling inspired, feel safe wherever they are, and go to sleep feeling fulfilled by the work that they do. I want that world too. I want to help people make their dreams come true, and that doesnt make me some saint of good person, it’s all in a selfish pursuit of making myself feel good.

Making other people feel good, feels good.

Maybe that’s all I’m looking for.

Where the skies are gold not gray,

J.