“Why Did You Quit Being a Cheesemonger?”

This is a question I’ve gotten at a few classes from well meaning folks and thought there’s no better time to answer this than during Ehlers Danlos Syndrome Awareness Month! 

In 2024, I got to be a cheesemonger for just part of the year before my body gave out. It wasn’t a perfect position, but I loved sharing my excitement when we got in a new cheese, offering samples to customers and seeing their faces light up, and learning the facts about our various cheeses in stock. I’d had years of joint issues that ebbed and flowed depending on my job in the food industry, but this eventually reached an unsustainable level of pain and issues from working behind the cheese counter. The day that I finally quit was when my kneecap visibly sublexed and had the sensation and appearance of being detached from my leg. I knew I couldn’t keep doing this to myself and that injuries would likely only pile up over a cheesemonger career. 

To say this was devastating would be an understatement. I had found something I really loved to do, and had invested time and money into getting an education based around it, and my body didn’t give me a chance to even experience it for very long. I felt defeated and embarrassed to have not even made it a year as a monger.

Eventually, I got a hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) diagnosis, which solved all these long-standing puzzles and brought some mental relief to the question of what was wrong with my body. My connective tissue is faulty, which explains my unstable joints, muscles spasms, and all the other symptoms that go along with this genetic condition. 

Once I had that figured out, it was time to strategize how to pivot this cheese passion into another avenue. It didn’t take long for me to realize that teaching and writing about cheese is what I wanted to do. If my body wasn’t going to cooperate, then I’d do everything in my power to utilize what is still going strong: My brain. 

After waffling for a bit, and getting over some serious imposters syndrome, I launched Mrs. Cheese in the fall of 2025 and have been talking about cheese nonstop since then. Through this endeavor I’ve gotten to do everything from teaching classes to styling wedding spreads to collaborating with my favorite queer bar to serve up Irish cheeses. To say I’m lucky is an understatement. 

I won’t pretend that I don’t sometimes wish I could still work as a cheesemonger, it’s on my long list of things that my joints won’t allow me to do any more, but I’m extremely grateful that I’ve gotten the chance to stay in the cheese industry in a way that helps keep my body safe and my mind fulfilled.