If everything worked out the way you thought it was going to, 10 or 20 years ago, what kind of a life would you be leading today? It’s fascinating to ponder how different the world might be if Jeff Bezos didn’t quit his job and start Amazon. Or if William Shakespeare had been content to make a living as an actor and hadn’t started writing.

We all change course. We change our minds. We fall in love, with a career or a person, and things that were quietly rolling along are suddenly off the rails and we’re going in a whole other direction. 
Heather Degeyter is a prime example.

Heather was, step by step, building a career as an academic. She got a masters degree in language and literature at UL. And she was teaching at LSU, when she gave it all up. To make macarons. In June of 2019, Heather turned what was a passion and a growing home-business, making macarons to order, into a full-time job, and a storefront bakery on Kaliste Saloom in Lafayette, called Bonne Vie Macarons.

And then there’s the story of Stephen Verrett, who dropped out of college to become a freelance web designer.  If you’re waiting for a story about how Stephen became a fabulously successful web designer… well, I could tell that story, but instead I’m going to tell you how he gave that up – to open a restaurant in Lafayette. Along with a couple of partners, Stephen took over what was the old Filling Station restaurant – which itself was originally a gas station – and turned it into Spoonbill. Today, we’re sitting a table at Spoonbill, across from its co-owner, Stephen Verrett.