Inquiry Reflection

As this semester comes to an end and we start to wrap up our classes, projects, blogs etc. I have been trying to figure out if I can even answer my initial inquiry question. For this inquiry, I decided to take a look at one of my favorite hobbies (baking) and if/how it would impact my stress levels while doing full time school and part time work. This has been really hard to measure. I have found that having to do my baking has actually caused some stress. I found myself often manically baking on Sunday evenings to get it done, resulting in less sleep and more stress/anxiety. However, while I was baking I found that I was feeling so much more in the moment. It was a much needed break from my laptop screen and textbook. As I said last week in my macaron post, I think it boils down to why I am baking. Am I baking because it is assigned? Or am I choosing to bake because I want to? If it was the latter, then I would say that yes baking is an excellent stress reliever. Having a creative outlet is so important for my mental health, and baking/cooking is something that I love to do (and share). I really enjoyed exploring this inquiry and posting my baking progress with everyone, as well as seeing what everyone else had been up to through their inquiry process’. It was so nice to get back into baking, it had been a while since I explored new recipes as I am a sucker for tradition and often just use my same old. I plan to continue baking new recipes and using new techniques next semester as well (just not weekly).