It’s hard to say goodbye, when you’ve emotionally invested yourself in something.
There’s a tendency to immerse yourself to a point that you feel that there’s a turning point just around the corner. It will change soon, you think. It will get better, just wait and see.
But that’s not always the truth. It doesn’t always get better, and if that’s the case you need to move on.
I’m moving on. There’s a lot to be said, but the combination of the pandemic, the incredible shrinking of the labor force willing to enter craft beer, and family stressors, has led me to leave the craft industry I loved so much.
My parents’s time on this Earth is waning and I am feeling the immense pressure of needing to be there with them. With that is an immense financial responsibility and location responsibility. There’s also a need for an emotional network and support system that simply doesn’t exist for me where I am. Being back in Colorado makes it easy to get to Austin where my parents are. There’s a financial opportunity that I can’t pass up.
I don’t think there’s much more to be said about it.
It’s hard to describe to people the need to be a good son. Our Taiwanese culture stresses the need for filial piety, and while I don’t cotton to the antiquated nature of it, there’s a part of me that believes in being there for my parents. I want to be there to help guide and support my parents in their twilight years. They were there for me for so much, and the least I can do is be there to hold them as they held me.
I love my parents more than I could have ever imagined.
It hurts so much to turn away from the industry that accepted me for who I am, but my family needs me more than before. I want to spend more time with my folks and be there for them as they were for me as a kid.
I hope one day to embrace craft and be a part of the community again, but for now, my family needs me.
I hope one day we will be together again, craft industry. Thank you for so much and for being such a pillar for me.
Thank you.