Quitting corporate has been weirder than i expected

It’s been exactly 2 months since I quit corporate.

Which still feels insane to say out loud lol.

Some mornings I wake up and for a split second forget I don’t have a tech job anymore. No more slack notifications. No panic checking my calendar before I’ve even opened my eyes. No Sunday night dread sitting in my chest.

And I don’t think I realized how burnt out I was until I stopped.

Month 1 felt very strange in a way I wasn’t expecting.

I started sleeping in again. Like actually sleeping. Waking up slowly. Making coffee without immediately opening my laptop. My birthday this year was also the first one in a really long time where I didn’t feel mentally attached to work. Which weirdly made me emotional.

And all of this happened right as spring started showing up in New York.

The trees started blooming again. Everyone suddenly outside. Flowers everywhere. West Village finally smelling good again lol. And I remember walking around one day thinking oh… I think I’m changing too. Like I was shedding an old version of myself in real time.

Now onto the non sexy parts of all this.

This transition has been emotionally all over the place.

Some days I feel incredibly grateful that I get to do this. And then other days I’m sitting in sweatpants staring at a whiteboard at 2pm wondering if I’ve run out of ideas because this is my job now lol.

There’s also this weird pressure where every good thing immediately becomes okay… now top it.

I also started meeting way more people in food and freelance during random weekdays. Random Tuesday afternoon coffees with writers and chefs and creators who are all quietly going through some version of the same thing.

At dinners and events and random moments around the city, I’ve also met so many of you in real life. And hearing women tell me that watching me pursue a non linear path has given them hope in some way genuinely fills my cup more than anything else.

From an opportunity standpoint, I took on zero brand campaigns during Month 1. Not because opportunities didn’t come in. Some did. But the truth is a lot of creator deals just don’t align with what you actually stand for.

Good partnerships are rare. I turned down a five figure deal.

And I know that sounds like some powerful creator boundary setting moment but honestly it just stressed me out lol. I never want my page to feel like I’m posting random ads for things I don’t actually care about.

Around April I started getting a little nervous because reality started hitting more. My last paycheck officially came on March 13th and that’s when it really clicked for me that I had stopped making consistent income months ago.

Thankfully I had savings to fall back on. But still… when partnerships don’t come in, you make nothing. One month feels amazing and the next month you’re refreshing your inbox wondering if anyone’s emailing you back.

Okay now onto the good things lol.

Towards the second half of April things slowly started picking up again.

I’ve been quietly working on a few projects behind the scenes with brands I genuinely love and already use. And then the last week of April completely took me out.

I had 2 huge events within 48 hours in 2 different cities.

First was my May Bazaar supper club which was also my first supper club since quitting my full time job. And wow these dinners still absolutely destroy me every single month lol.

People see the final table and the plated food. But behind that is weeks of planning and multiple nonstop prep days cooking for 20 people. I cook 10 courses every dinner so genuinely imagine how many moving pieces that is.

By the end I basically feel hallucinated. Like genuinely not sure what day it is anymore.

And then 2 days later I was suddenly in Chicago for a campaign with KitchenAid.

They asked me to host an afternoon high tea in their kitchen and I pulled out ALL the stops. Pastries everywhere. Whimsical drapes. Tiny desserts. Girls hanging around all afternoon.It ended up being better than anything I’ve hosted before. Which is also a little terrifying because now I’m like okay… how do I top this lol.

I just got back to New York last night after 2 full days busting my ass in their kitchen.

And honestly I keep thinking about how it took me 35 years to get here.

From growing up in India to somehow building this life in New York City.

I don’t think 22 year old me would believe this ended up being the plot.

Anyway lol.

Next week I’ll recap exactly how the May Bazaar dinner party was executed. The menu, the costs, the prep chaos, what went wrong, what worked, and a surprise new recipe that honestly might end up becoming a permanent part of my dinner menus.

Love,

Nirupa