Live free: Ashley Ramirez at TEDxHuntsville

Ashley Ramirez arrives in Huntsville, in January 2013, fresh out of graduate school with a Ph.D. in Chemistry, planning to begin work at Redstone Arsenal in just a few weeks. However, her job is initially canceled and she, together with her husband, sets up a gluten-free bakery.

Today, I want to ask you:

what does it mean to live free?

Here in America we all live free. Right?

We have the freedom of speech,
freedom of religion,

right to a fair trial,

but is that all that really exists
to living free?

For me, it's not.
There's a whole lot more to it.

It means living your life
pursuing your passion.

It means living a life
that makes you truly happy,

Not one that makes your friends happy,

the celebrities happy,

one that makes you happy.

It means not letting the small setbacks

that are bound to happen

get in the way of your day-to-day life.

It means not wishing your days away

just to get to the weekend.

I think that a lot of us
aren't living free.

We let the day-to-day negativities

get in the way of pursuing
our dreams and our happiness.

I was fortunate enough just recently

to be pushed into
the lifestyle of living free.

It was a very roundabout manner,

it was a very inopportune situation,

but I'm grateful for it.

And I want to share
with you today the story

of how I was able to break down
internal boundaries

and build connections with people
who supported me

and wanted to see me reach my dreams,

in order to start living free.

It's January 21st 2013,

and I've just successfully defended
my Ph.D. in chemistry,

at Duke University
to a roomful of people.

As you can imagine I was pretty much
on cloud nine then.

5 years of 6.5 day workweeks,

long hours, and I will admit,

a few tears along the way,
were finally over.

And not only were they over,
but I was proud.

I was proud of the work
that I had completed,

I felt like I had made a contribution

to the scientific community.

Also, I had a job lined up,

which is becoming more and more
rare these days

with an advanced degree,

but that's another topic for another day.

In mid-February, I was starting a job

at Redstone Arsenal with the army.

And I was excited.

I was going to be pursuing
what I thought was my dream

in helping our nation defend itself.

I had everything set for my transition

from graduate school to the real world.

We sold our house in North Carolina,

and my husband, Taylor,
was able to find a new job,

here in Huntsville,
with a financial institution.

We made the move,
we got settled in

in our little rental house
here in Huntsville.

Now it's Friday, and I'm set to start work

first thing early Monday morning.

Now, mind you, this is mid-February,

you guys know what was going on,

when an email pops up and it reads,

"We're sorry, your start date
has been delayed.

and at this time, we are unsure

as to when we'll be able to hire you."

Wait a minute, you're kidding, right?

The job that brought us to Huntsville,

the only reason that we moved here,

has now fallen through.

And I'm left unemployed.

What do we do?

We could go back to North Carolina,

we have our friends there.

But we have no house, we have no jobs,

wherever we go, we have to start over.

In our short amount of time
here in Huntsville,

we realized that we liked the city,

and we thought that
we could really enjoy it here

and make this a home.

So, we decided, "We're young,

why not stay, give it a try?"

Fortunately, Taylor had a job here

and so we had some income coming in

to support us for a while,

until I figured out
what I was going to do.

I enjoyed, initially, staying at home,

the house was clean,
dinner was on the table every night.

It was very different
from graduate school life.

I enjoyed relaxing --
for about two weeks.

I found out that staying at home

does not suit my personality very well.

I needed to have a purpose.

I needed to be challenged.

I needed to be happy,
and I needed to be free.

So, what did I do?

I started a business.

Now, if you ask any of our friends
back in North Carolina

if I was the type of person

to ever launch out
and start my own business,

they would laugh,
probably pretty hysterically.

Not that I'm not creative or driven;

I am not a risk taker.

I have a huge fear of the unknown,

and I like to micromanage,

I like to have everything planned out,

know all the steps along the way.

I am a chemist, after all.

Launching a new business
requires substantial risk,

and this just wasn't any business --

I wanted to open
a dedicated gluten-free bakery,

here in Huntsville, Alabama,

in the South, home of fried food.

Hmm, let's see, that might not
go over so well.

Having a severe
gluten sensitivity myself,

I was surprised with how little awareness,

and how many baked goods there were

available here in Huntsville.

I've always loved to bake,

and my husband's always
dreamed of owning a business.

Now a bakery, probably,
had never crossed his mind --

but the things you do
for the people you love, right?

So, I knew that in order
to launch this business,

I needed to take a risk.

Sometimes I think that
the biggest boundaries that we face

are the ones that we set for ourselves.

We build up walls that limit us,

and they're completely self-imposed.

Since I like to micromanage,

Taylor and I sat down and started
looking at all the numbers.

We looked at, you know,
the sales that we would have to do

to simply pay rent
on a commercial kitchen,

let alone equipment, utilities,
insurance, all of the other stuff.

I said, "There's no way.

There can't be
that many people in Huntsville

that either need to be gluten-free

or are interested in a cleaner lifestyle."

I wanted to throw in the towel.

I said, "There's no way, it won't work."

My fear of the unknown
was getting in the way.

I wasn't willing to take that risk.

One of the other crucial pieces
to living free,

besides breaking your own boundaries,

is building connections with people

who support you and help build you up.

Taylor, my husband,

he knew that this would make me happy,

he knew that it was one of my dreams.

He said, "Let's do it."

I resisted, I resisted for a long time.

He said, "No, let's do it.
Let's give it a shot.

If it fails, it fails.
We can say that we tried."

And so we did.

We started out small,

within the means that I was comfortable,

started out the farmers' markets,

to kind of gauge the interest in the area,

before we launched a full storefront.

We got great feedback,

everything was going well,

we were planning for the opening
of our storefront,

when I get a phone call:

"Your job has become re-available,

and you're required to take it."

I was under a service
for scholarship contract,

and, even though I have been left
unemployed for 6 months,

I was required to come back
and take the job.

We're at a crossroads again.
What do we do?

I'm happy, I'm loving the bakery,
I've found my passion,

I am living my dream,
I am living free.

I didn't know what to do.
I thought we had to walk away.

How can I run a bakery and work full-time?

At the time, my husband,
he wasn't really happy with his job.

It wasn't fulfilling him.
He wasn't living free.

Here comes Superman again,
saving the day.

He says, "I'll quit my job,

I'll run the bakery."

"You, baking cupcakes!?"

You're Superman at home, you wear a cape.

But wearing an apron,
that's a whole nother thing.

He says, "I know it makes you happy.

I'm not happy right now.

Maybe I can find
the same passion that you have.

Maybe I can start living free."

So, he quits his job.

Me, not being a risk taker,

it's a lot of sleepless nights.

Now, for six months in to the business,

things are going great.

Taylor's running the bakery
during the day.

I work the early shift on the Arsenal,

and then go and bake in the evenings.

We're happy.

Are we where we thought we would be?

If you would have asked us this
a year ago, well, no.

Are we making the money

that we had planned on making
here in Huntsville?

Oh, by no means, no.

But does that matter?
Because we're happy,

and we're living free.

Taylor will tell you he gets up

every morning over two hours earlier,

but he's excited to start his day.

That passion, that excitement,
that's how we should live

every day of our life.

So, I want to ask you:

Are you living free?

A lot of the speakers
that have been up here today,

I can tell that they are.

You can see the passion,

you can feel the joy of what they do,

and that joy is contagious.

So, if you are living free, I commend you,

keep up the good work
and continue spreading the joy.

But if you're not, I challenge you.

It's going to require breaking
some of your boundaries.

You have to find your passion,

and it might require taking a risk.

But build connections with those
that build you up,

and that support your dreams,

and start living free.

Tomorrow is almost here.

Do you want to waste another day?

Thank you.

(Applause)