just something I do

I find myself using those words quite often - "it's just something I do" - as a way of explaining (or perhaps not explaining) something I do. Get up and the crack of dawn to swim in frigid weather, "it's just something I do". Tackle crazy challenges, "it's just something I do". Bake cakes for my advisees when they are accepted to college, "it's just something I do". My advisees sometimes think I should quit my college counseling job and become a baker or a pastry chef. I tell them you've got to have a back-up plan in life...maybe baking/cooking is my Plan B!?
But the reality of all of my "it's just something I do" answers is that I do these things because I love them, or I love the people for whom they are intended. Case in point, these goofy cakes. I make them because I want to celebrate my advisees. Because I'm so darn proud of their accomplishments. Because this college application process can be stressful and needs to balanced out by the celebration of successes. But above all, I do it because I love my advisees and I want them to know that. If cooking/baking for others were a love language, then I'd be trying to become fluent in it! Here's to love and baking/cooking and love of baking/cooking!