I live in a small town in Worcester County called Southbridge. No one out of a few surrounding towns even knows where Southbridge is, it is certainly not the prettiest town around. My parents purchased an old historical building in this town about 15 years ago which at the age of 10 I thought was the biggest mistake of their lives. The building seemed like it should have been condemned over saved, yet I have that building to thank for keeping our family together – completely insane – but together. After the closing of my father’s family’s restaurant that survived 55 years the only feasible thing left to do was for him to start a restaurant in the building he purchased years prior and start the journey of entrepreneurship.  I remember the years of clean up and masks we had to wear as we scraped the paint off the walls and sanded the floors with power tools that weighed more than myself at the time. We built a business out of nothing, not a single person in my family had any knowledge on how to run a successful business and 7 years later I swear we spend more time banging our heads against walls as we do enjoying our moments together as a family.

Times are hard in the business world, never mind the restaurant business. In May of this year I graduated from Nichols College with a Bachelors in Business Administration where I concentrated in management. The most popular question that I get now that I have graduated is if I plan to take over my father’s business – which in response I just to scream “no” to, as if the question doesn’t deserve a single second of thought. Watching my family struggling, loosing two houses in the meantime, selling vehicles and our house in Vermont, and endless nights of fighting and tears… I wouldn’t wish this life onto anyone. Yet I can’t leave to pursue my own desires because if there is one thing I will never give up on in life is my family. So I have settled for a job at a local bank – making me regret on a daily basis my $65,000 in college debt that I have accumulated and have completely made a waste of. And at the end of the bank day I run to the restaurant, averaging 14 hours days, 6 days a week (if I am lucky) and zero personal time between house hold duties and exhaustion. Between efforts in trying to keep the restaurant from drowning, dreaming of my career goals that will put my degree to use, preparing for a future family and life of my own while being the rope that holds everything together – this is my struggle.