Josh Wessler
"I had this feeling like I didn't quite know why I was going to college, what I was going to do there. I wasn't really able to articulate this, but there was this discomfort with the application process. You go to college once; you have an undergraduate experience once... It's a unique experience, and I didn't know whether I was ready for that."
Fresh Routes CEO Josh Wessler knew he would go to college, but he had a lot of questions. Drawn to Middlebury College's environmental studies offerings, Josh enrolled at the small liberal arts college in Vermont and spent four years exploring the interdisciplinary department. "I spent my first year in college determined not to pick a major and not to focus and not to specialize. Environmental studies ultimately appealed to me because it kind of fulfilled that goal, because I was able to not focus on one area and focus on many different aspects that comprised the environmental studies major at Middlebury," he said.
Soon after graduating in 2009, Josh moved to New York City and began pursuing a growing passion for food. He landed a restaurant job by walking door-to-door before taking full-time jobs first at the Food Bank For New York City and then at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. When his team won a food business plan competition, his company, Fresh Routes, was born.
Highlights
Sharing college doubts with parents: They were definitely aware throughout college that I was having those doubts. We talked about it quite often. They were and continue to be extremely supportive of everything that I do while encouraging me to get my education and then explore a little more freely afterwards. While I was applying, we didn't talk about my discomfort. I just kind of expressed it in adolescent ways, kind of pushing back on college visits. I was not the most active applicant, I would say, or the most assertive applicant...I was kind of resisting, but I wasn't able to put it into words, and so I expressed it in what I can now see as very immature ways.
Thinking about life after graduation: I believe I tried really hard not to think about that, tried really hard not to think about what was gonna come afterwards. And I'd like to think it was less from fear and more just from wanting to be in the moment as much as possible and wanting to soak everything up...Even graduating, I was pretty intent on not thinking too much about my next step.
Finding the time to launch a business: When I graduated, I was really in love with the time that I had. Time is totally different from when you are working from when you're in school. At least, it is for me. I would come home from work and I could do whatever I wanted. I didn't have homework. That really allowed me to make decisions every day, be very intentional with how I spent my time. And I found that I was able to do what I wanted to do. I was able to do many different things.