Running A Side Hustle With A Full-Time Job

Posted by Aleka Shunk on October 17th, 2019

My name is Aleka and I am a thirty-something math teacher, mother to two toddlers and founder of a food blog called Bite Sized Kitchen. I became a teacher because I love kids and I love helping others especially by teaching them something NEW. Although I love what I do, there was this lingering "void" that followed me. I am a creative person by nature and love the creative world. My favorite most memorable classes in college were art and culinary. (both unrelated to teaching) AND, when you teach a subject like math, your creativity is extremely limited.

That's the void I needed to fill. I opened an Etsy shop a few years ago and created everything from wreaths to wooden signs to sell. This was short-lived and ended up being more of an inconvenience than a hobby at the time.

Then I started a blog. A food blog. I have always LOVED cooking and as I got older, took more of an interest in classes, magazines, shows, other blogs, anything I could find related to cooking. Starting a food blog was the best thing I could have done. Not only did it allow me to find that creative outlet I was searching for, but it gave me another opportunity in life. A second career path that holds all sorts of possibilities.

But with all those possibilities, comes reality. How can I afford to maintain a food blog that requires multiple resources, spend quality time with my family, and stay on top of my teaching responsibilities? It was something I originally did not fear. I told myself I would just take it one day at a time and see where it takes me.

Over two years later, I am still blogging, teaching and parenting. And I am burning out. Finding the time to do everything is NOT easy and I sometimes question if I made the right choice. Should I have become a teacher? Should I have even bothered starting a blog? Am I wasting my time? Are my kids and husband getting enough attention? All these questions are constantly going through my head and even though I am still unsure of the answers, I am going to keep at it. Because success if hard work. And if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

My passion is cooking and I can't ignore that. I enjoy helping my readers and sharing my recipes with my friends and family. I also love the idea that I have been able to do what I love to help add to our household income. It makes everything worth while and helps me keep going. I hope in another 2 years I will confidently be able to say, I do not regret spending all those extra hours sitting in from of the computer while my children are looking to 'play'. I want to be able to tell them when they are older that I did this for us. I want them to see what following your passion looks like. What not having regrets looks like. I hope and pray they will see some day.