Katy Murtaugh’s Next Big Adventure!

Hi! My name is Katy Murtaugh and I’m on a hunt for fulfilling work.

Short version:
- From Madison, WI
- Was a marketing consultant for 5 years
- Traveled the world for about 16 months
- Most recently a baker/cafe manager of local/sustainable/organic cafe
- Leaving Dec. 1 2007 to be a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea (!!!)

Long verison:
I like to say I’m “mostly” from Madison, Wisconsin - a town I love deeply and that has loved me right back. But I have roots in enough other places that it feels wrong to say Madison is solely where I’m from. Born in Iowa, then to Madison for dad’s research (I swear I remember the feeling of being on the back of my dad’s bike as a 3-year-old on the rides to/from preschool everyday), young childhood in Connecticut and New Jersey (I was proud to have lived in the same house in NJ for almost three years - wow!), back to Madison, then to Connecticut for high school (Ethel Walker, a wonderful boarding school in Simsbury), Minnesota for college (Carleton in Northfield, fine for a while!), finally landing back in Madison where I started to work for my mother.

My mother opened her business when I was in 4th grade - it was why we moved back to Madison - whatever it was when it first started, it is now an acclaimed strategic marketing consultancy. Working for her and in that business was challenging, intellectually stimulating and well paying (thanks mom), but I just didn’t care about it. I just didn’t care if Kellogg’s sells one more box of cereal next year than they do this year — in fact, it seems like the whole world would be better off if they didn’t. So, was the work satisfying? Sure. Challenging? Yes. Interesting? Yes. Fulfilling? No.

I bought a round-the-world ticket and took off for a little less than a year and a half. I just traveled. I saw new places, did new things, ate new foods, met new people, heard new languages, swam in new oceans. I saw very, very rich people driving down streets lined with very, very poor people. I saw glittering hotels with slums in their shadows. I saw natural beauty that I could never have even dreamt of. It was exciting and wonderful to be so very far away for a good chunk time. I spent my last four months living in Lyon, France, working on my French and just generally soaking up as much of that “je ne sais quoi” as I could. My family came out and we had an international Thanksgiving which was simply a riotous good time. Fun? Yes. Exciting? Yes. Stress-free? Mostly. Aimless? A little. Fulfilling? Nope.

I decided that the world of food was what excited me the most and that was to be my next path. Madison has a pretty hopping food scene (truly…have you heard about our Farmer’s Market?), so I headed back “home.” I got pretty lucky and landed a baker’s apprenticeship with a baker in town, and learned the art/science of croissants and other French pastries. After 6 months, I got lucky again and landed a baking gig at the best restaurant in town (truly…they’re on Gourmet’s Top 50 in the country): L’Etoile and their new Cafe Soleil.

That’s where I’ve been for almost 2 1/2 years now. What started as baking quickly grew into running the bakery, which in turn grew into running the entire cafe. I’ve been working for a fabulous brother/sister pair and I am a better person, manager and baker for having worked with the both of them. On the one hand, what everyone says is true: the restaurant world is not as glamorous as it seems. On the other hand, as I begin to take steps away from it, fully aware of its unglamorous-ness, I still find it compelling and fun. For me, baking especially was wonderful. It is physically demanding; it requires meticulousness; it allows for creativity and creation; it allows you to bring something to people that brings them joy. But fulfilling in the long term? Not for me.

About a year ago I decided it was time for me to get serious about finding something to do with my time that I found fulfilling. I’ve learned that I will probably never be someone, as much as I wish I were, who is good at compartmentalizing or “leaving work at home” or not giving every ounce I’ve got into whatever it is I’m doing as work. I’ve accepted this is who I am and how I operate (for now) and it is clear to me that I better find something worthwhile to put all that energy/time/commitment towards and it had better be something that truly fulfills me.

The Peace Corps has been on my radar screen since high school when I had to do a report about it in my geography class, and I had two houseparents whose apartment was decorated with African art and who spoke an African language from their time as Peace Corps volunteers. That was the definition of worldly and cool as far I was concerned and I had aspirations of being both of those things (still do!).

Now’s my time. I’ve got enough experience under my belt to take on this challenege with confidence and maybe even a little gumption. I’m young enough (and, more importantly, un-attached enough!) that all I have to do to take off for a couple of years is find a place to put my stuff (thanks mom). What I’m hoping is that my time in Peace Corps will open doors for me into development work. Peace Corps, hopefully, is the first step on a path of doing work in the world that needs to be done. If someone like me doesn’t do it, how are we ever going to have enough people to do the work that needs to be done in parts of the world no one wants to go to?

When I look back on my traveling days, I feel like I caught glimpses of my future. I feel like I spent a year-and-a-half simply witnessing different aspects of the world, diametrically opposed realities all true at the same time. I just wasn’t ready, and I knew I wasn’t ready, to own up to the implications of saying “those realities are not okay with me.” I guess I’m just old enough and just bold enough to finally place some judgment on what I saw in the world around me. I’m ready to particpate, instead of simply witness, and see what happens!

So, wish me luck (I’m gonna need it)! I leave the comforts of home on December 1, 2007 for my next big adventure!