 What
have you done with your UCSD degree? Built a better resume, leveraged
that fabulous education into your earning power, moved
on to an MBA to excel in the competitive business world—right?
I’m a Muir grad (B.A. History). I make great chicken salad
for Mommy & Me playgroups. It’s kind of a big deal.
I got married the summer before the fall 1996 quarter—my
last—at Muir. When graduation came around the following June
I was entrenched in my 70 hour-per-week catering job. I was a professional,
feet firmly planted on that ladder.
Then I heard that the Commencement speech was to be delivered by
our nation’s president. Oh, alright. I’ll go. President
Clinton, characteristically charismatic, made a commencement speech
to shame all others—and I sat in my robe on RIMAC field,
listening to the president address us graduates about changing
the world. I wanted to go back to school, to learn something more
and broaden my horizons. I envisioned a commanding acronym next
to ‘Samantha Gianulis’ on my business card. Those were the best-laid plans. A month later, I turned up pregnant.
Graduate school was put on hold given severe morning sickness … if
I couldn’t get out of bed for work, going to school after
work was out of the question.
I plodded along throughout my pregnancy, working too much. My doctor
took me out of work early. When Alexander arrived, the idealist
in me became a fierce protector; I wanted to make the world a better
(okay, safer) place for him. I resigned my job to parent him full-time.
It was liberating, until I found myself isolated in suburbia.
From the trenches of stay-at-home-motherhood, I asked my husband,
Pete, “Honey, why did I go to college?” He replied,
carefully, “Are you having another identity crisis?” Yes—I
was. I spent four (okay, five) years in college prepping myself
for a successful career, but I ended up cutting peaches into bite-sized
pieces on a highchair tray and clipping coupons. Was I where I
was supposed to be?
“Join a Mom’s club,” said my mother. I researched them
online. While I was at the keyboard, I started writing. Writing
had always been enjoyable for me, but besides keeping a personal
journal or writing papers while attending UCSD, I never fancied
myself
a “writer”. But as I wrote, my son napping or chasing
the dog, I felt like I was getting somewhere. At Muir, I wrote
papers about what I learned, and now my long intellectual pause
from graduation to motherhood exploded into essays, stories and
poetry.
 I started with what I knew–food. I had catering experience
and a love for food and cooking, so I used this knowledge, along
with recipes for my popular chicken salad and spicy shrimp, and
got published. First websites, then magazines. Twelve years after
graduation, I have a book soon to be released. I also have two
more children. I’m exhausted, yet invigorated.
And I think I am where I am supposed to be. I may go back for that
advanced degree, but right now, I’m fully engaged in writing,
being an editor, and learning. I’m hoping to reach people
with my book, and get them cooking with their kids.
The PR spin for my book is “essayistic cookbook”—sounds
good. But what my book really is—it’s hope with culinary
metaphors, it’s responsibility seasoned with vision. It’s
dinner theater and suburban revolutions and parental grievances,
with recipes to leave a good taste in your mouth.
It’s why I went to college—ideally.
Do you have a memory or a story about UCSD? This space could be
yours. Write to the editor at alumnieditor@ucsd.edu
—Samantha Gianulis lives in San Diego with her husband
and their three children. Her first book, “Little Grapes
on the Vine … Mommy’s Musings on Food & Family” was
published in April 2007. |
