Maybe it’s just the Recession, but what seemed possible a few years ago, in many ways feels not possible now. I once wrote a book called “Quit Your Job, Move to Paris.” I wrote it after a young dewy-eyed college grad interviewed me at the bank where I was working in the advertising department. (Dear God, I’m depressing myself just writing the words.) She’d recently graduated with a degree in advertising and wanted to know what she should do to, basically, get my job. I looked at her and asked: “Are you married?” She blushed prettily and shook her head. I said: “So no kids?” She reddened not so prettily and frowned at me. “Of course not,” she said. “Do you own your own home?” “I’m only 21,” she replied, as if speaking to a seriously mentally impaired individual. (Kind of like how my teenager speaks to me all the time but that’s another blog.) I said: “So, no ties, no mortgage, no private school tuition. My advice to you is…” She poised her little pen over her little steno pad.

Well, you can probably guess what I said (see above title of aforementioned book) and she did not appreciate being led on as she put it. In addition to being a new college graduate, she also happened to be the daughter of the bank’s vice president so I’m not sure why she was even bothering to get my take on anything. She should’ve just gone to her Dad and said: “I want her job, please, Daddy.”

But see, I had a mortgage and a kid (plus two step-kids, but again, another time, another blog) and the idea of “living my passion” or waking up and smelling the croissants on the Rue de la Paix or spending a year writing a novel was about as possible as starring in a Broadway musical. She was young. She had her whole life ahead of her. Her choices hadn’t been made yet. From my perspective, I thought she should take advantage of her freedom while she had it, as if passion—for writing or travel or acting or anything—would dry up or run out like sand in an hourglass.

I did write the “Quit Your Job” book and, in the process, researched various sections on several different life situations: married with kids, single with kids, etc. to suggest ways and ideas of how moving to Paris for a period of time might be possible. During the course of my research, I discovered how it would be possible for me to go, too. Unfortunately, the information I came up with was good and bad. On the bad side, I learned that even though there definitely was a way for you to move to Paris if you wanted to, you still might not go. And that’s because, on the good side of the ledger, you became aware that you weren’t kept from going…you actually chose not to go. Yeah, I know. It sucks. But sucks or not, it helps to know. I didn’t pack up the kid and the husband and shoot off to France in 2001 because I realized I wanted other things as much or more. Things that couldn’t happen if I took the Paris option at that time.

Funny thing about passion, though. If it’s real, it tends to stay with you. I don’t work in a corporate advertising department any more. I write full time. As for the Paris thing, well, my son is sifting through his college acceptances even as we speak which means, next year, he’s launched into his grand adventure. And guess what? Turns out, Paris is still there!

Guess that silly college girl was right about one thing: there really isn’t a time limit on passions after all.

If you’re interested in doing a little armchair traveling, I hope you pick up copies of my best-selling books The French Women’s Diet, Little Death by the Sea, Toujours Dead and Murder in Provence. Warning: don’t read hungry. (I am not kidding!)

http://myfrenchlife.org/2011/10/01/interview-carolyn-davenport-moncel/

http://www.girlsguidetoparis.com/archives/shopping-pointers-and-top-shopping-areas/

http://www.laurelzuckerman.com/2011/10/interview-with-karen-fawcett-founder-of-bonjourparis.html

http://myfrenchlife.org/2011/09/23/french-myths-busted/

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/