The Macaroni Grill

I had been sitting at the desk in the room of the house of the wife of the man who, 28 years earlier, was directly involved in the conception of myself. My cellphone, which had already started to crack under the pressure of a clinched fist that was under the weight of my anxiety, finally lit up and started ringing.

The woman who picked up was a result of the culmination of all the transformative life changes I was in the process of making. I had just lost 90 pounds. I had just finished up my real job that was not directly associated with my parents/fast food/the lottery.

'Hi. We received your resume and we don't even need to interview you. You are a perfect fit for this company. You are everything we have been waiting for. We love you.' I am, of course paraphrasing, as this was several years ago. However, I think I hit all of the important points.

I had only passively heard of genealogy as well as had only a passive strength in science (passive in the sense that I barely passed the subject in college and the building that housed my science classes was past the student union with the food court that I usually passed on my way to my post-science class nap).

I was, luckily, eventually hired. I came in for orientation and my supervisor told me that I was going to accompany her to the Macaroni Grill the following evening where she was speaking to a genealogical group on our product. We arrived at the restaurant and that was where I was first introduced to the passion of genealogy. The group she was speaking to was the Sons of the American Revolution. As I was there representing the company, while gracious, the group was determined to ask me questions about our tests, their results, and my expertise. I, of course, was really only interested in the free meal and wine. As her presentation started, I was immediately hit with the realization that: 1. I had no idea what she was talking about and 2. The food was taking forever.

By the time she finished, she took me aside and told me that hopefully someday I would be giving a similar presentation. I shook with the sudden realization that she had actually been presenting for an hour while I was drowning myself in food.

Genetic Genealogy is hard. Even for people that know what they're doing. It involves genealogy, which is hard, and genetics, which is hard. It involves contacting strangers, which is uncomfortable, and potentially confronting surprises about your past, which can be gut-punching.

Since that night, I have given many similar presentations and now want to use this site as my own Macaroni Grill for others.