"I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference," The Road I Took: Part 1

I had been in healthcare for over 13 years, 13 years working in pharmacies, hospitals, and clinics, while going to school part-time. I was on my way to earning a degree in Social Work.

How did I jump from a timeline where I was on the path to becoming a social worker, a timeline where I worked full time, sometimes more than full time, and went to school, barely having any free time, and where my obligations rarely brought me joy, to a timeline where I’m creating websites, editing videos, almost fluent in Spanish, playing the drums, creating art, and along the way meeting and collaborating with some of the most incredible people I’ve ever known?

Like the owner of Econido.mx, an amazing human being who saw a problem with real estate in Mexico and launched her business to help bring affordable homes to more citizens. Or Vera Kiser, another incredible human being, owner and founder of Worthy Causes, a charity helping youth in the U.S., and a YouTube content creator (Vee Vicariously) helping people learn through travel and expand their worldview beyond the borders of their home countries. Or Pamela Bergman, okay, they’re all incredible humans, owner and founder of Dandelion Balloons, a business where she solves problems with stratospheric balloons (the big white weather balloons, how cool is that!).

And that’s just to name a few. One day, I hope to fill my blog with individualized, more detailed articles about all these and the other women I’ve met along the way: authors, artists, tattoo artists, real estate agents, charity organizers, programmers, anthropologists, linguists, and so much more.

But first, my origin story, or at least Part 1, haha.

After COVID, I decided to re-assess my life and the direction I was heading in. Of course, the direction wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t great. I couldn’t see my lifestyle changing. I saw myself still working a grind just to barely get by, or only putting time and energy into work and not into things I find joy in.

Then I stumbled upon my 403b (401k for non-profits) and saw I had enough to potentially move out of the country, a dream I’ve had for as long as I can remember.

I did some research on Costa Rica, but I was getting uneasy with how far it is from home. Something nudged me into checking out Mexico. I looked up Mexico’s industrialization and saw it was a lot more developed than mainstream media made it out to be. I looked up information on their government and learned they, too, had three judiciary branches and had anti-discriminatory LGBT laws in place for quite some time, meaning I’d likely be safe and free to be me.

I found that it was home to the second safest city in all of the Americas (not just Mexico, not just North America, but all of the Americas), which yes, is the city I now live in.

Beyond all this new information, memories flooded my mind of the people I had met when I moved to Southern California. Alone in a big city, the people who welcomed me most were people from Mexico. Something in me just said yes, 100 percent yes, go for it, do it.

So I did it.

I put a three-week notice in at my job before I even had a remote position, and before that retirement check even hit my account, I said Sayonara, adiós, farewell, I’m going to live my life now. And I have been… sort of. I arrived in Mexico in 2022, and within six months I noticed a shift within me. I was calmer. I had more time, space, and energy. My job didn’t know I was in Mexico, and it was only a matter of time before they found out and gave me the boot.

At the end of this six-month period, quite a few realizations happened: how much my mood and mental health had been affected by constantly being in survival mode and toxic work environments, and also how much we actually do have control over our thoughts, subsequently our emotions, and our lives. How we really can do whatever we put our minds to. I realized I really could learn and develop skills to earn a living outside of being a cog in someone else’s machine.

But what skills? All I had known for the prior 13 years of my life was entry-level healthcare, and prior to that the food industry and retail. So a deep dive into self-discovery I went. I reflected upon my life to reconnect with past passions I had set aside to make a buck in the world.

Music… all my instruments were back in the States. Art, specifically tattoo artistry, yes, great, but that limits me to the people immediately around me. Programming… perfect. I can freelance and find clients anywhere in the world. But also… I really do love art and music, and at this point I had also started upon a spiritual journey, and if we create our realities, who says I can't do it all? Like seriously, who says lol. I can certainly be a part-time developer and part-time artist and find a local Mexican band to play drums a couple times a month.

So the journey began.

Stay tuned for Part 2 :)