> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://thechocolatelife.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Thinking About My ChocolateLife - URL: https://thechocolatelife.com/thinking-about-my-chocolatelife/ - Published: 2020-11-08T21:58:40.000Z - Updated: 2023-06-07T19:14:37.000Z - Author: Clay Gordon - Tags: TCL Originals *If you’re like me*, the coronavirus has changed your life in ways you never imagined could have been possible on Jan 1 of this year. In the first 75 days of 2020, I took a trip to Tokyo in January, followed in mid-February by a European tour that included Amsterdam (for the Chocoa conference), Finland (to visit my girlfriend who was on an extended art residency), France (to visit Bonnat), Brussels (for a consulting gig), and Rotterdam (to visit Heinde & Verre) before returning to New York – literally as the President was announcing the first travel restrictions. I was in NY for less than 36 hours before heading back to JFK to catch a flight to São Paulo for a chocolate festival. I returned to NY on March 16th and headed straight into self-quarantine as the magnitude of the problem began to manifest itself. At that time, the largest Covid-19 outbreak in the US was in New Rochelle, NY, about a two-mile walk from where I lived. By the end of March, all of the work I had in my calendar for the rest of 2020 – most of it requiring international travel – had been postponed indefinitely or canceled outright. I was stuck in my apartment, wondering what I would do. ![ante-hamersmit_unsplash_resize](https://thechocolatelife.com/content/images/wordpress/2020/12/ante-hamersmit_unsplash_resize.jpg) And I have been actively exploring questions of my future almost every day since – as, no doubt, many of you reading this have been doing as well. My first move was to implement an idea that had been percolating in my brain for some months, **[TheChocolateWire](https://www.thechocolatewire.com/?ref=thechocolatelife.com)**. TheChocolateWire is a hyper-focused press/PR service for the cocoa and chocolate industries. It is going, but more slowly than I hoped. (If you’re interested in TheChocolateWire’s services, please contact me!) Like many here in the US, a lot of our attention has been occupied with the presidential election. I have to admit that while I was less obsessed with following the news this cycle than in 2016, I spent more time than was good for my mental health hooked on the news and coscial media in the weeks leading up to the Republican National Convention. > And so I have been taking a mental health break from social media and many content outlets on the Interwebs. What I thought would last one month has lasted closer to three. In mid-August, I was approached by a colleague and asked to join a cannabis edibles startup in Western Massachusetts. I agreed, and much of my time and focus since early September has been on the mechanics of that venture. Then in late September I received notice from Maven that I needed to move off the platform. (As of the time of originally writing this...) I am/was still in the midst of making that move. I have identified a new platform and am in the process of migrating data over to it. My plan is that will be done before the end of November and that shortly thereafter I will be able to merge the content from the archive site over to the new platform, finally reuniting the two. I am still thinking about what the next chapter in my ChocolateLife (and in TheChocolateLife) will be. I have watched what others are doing and it’s just not my nature to follow. My goal is to do what no one else is doing and I am still trying to figure out what that is. ![ian-schneider_unsplash_resize](https://thechocolatelife.com/content/images/wordpress/2020/12/ian-schneider_unsplash_resize.jpg) Passion is what got me to where I am today. Passion will be what gets me through these times. Passion – and doing what I know I am good at – will be what drives my future. I know that one day I will experience an epiphany and I will know what to do next. Right now I need to complete the move off Maven in order to close the books on the last three years. Thank you to everyone who’s been a part of my ChocolateLife since its beginning back in 1994 and thanks to all who have been a part of TheChocolateLife since January 2008 when it all started. ![claysignature_217x240](https://thechocolatelife.com/content/images/wordpress/2020/12/claysignature_217x240-1.jpg) --- Archived Comments --- Comment by: SehgalbalpreetPosted on: Nov 10, 2020 till now its good that we are together here as part of chocolatelife and truly passion is what unite us. --- Comment by: chocolopolisPosted on: Nov 09, 2020 It’s a pleasure to be a part of your ChocolateLife. I look forward to seeing where your passion takes you from here.