Two Years Gone

I had just returned from a 10 day trip to Barcelona, and I knew that my life was going to be changing in a big way. All my little personal experiments leading up to this had provided me with the information that I needed to be sure that I could do this. Two years ago today, I walked into my boss’s office and presented him with my resignation letter letting him know I would be leaving the company in 2 weeks. Logically, he assumed I was going to work at another IT related job, so he asked me where I was going. When I told him I was going to leave the US to teach English, the look on his face was priceless! He asked me when I was leaving. I told him I didn’t know – I hadn’t figured that out yet. He asked me where I was going. I told him I didn’t know – I hadn’t figured that out yet. He asked me if I could stay longer than 2 weeks. I told him that I could not. After 2 weeks, it would be time to go. And so I went.

At first I was going to summarize things here to pull together everything that I’ve experienced in these last 2 years, but it just kept going on and on, and I realized that it wasn’t going to be all that interesting to read in one gigantic article. I probably should have journaled and blogged more along the way to be able to share things as they happened, but, well, I didn’t. As a result, you get the bulleted highlights:

• January 2014: Quit corporate job
• April 2014: Received English teaching certification in Rio de Janeiro
• July 2014: Returned to US, sold house
• August 2014: Arrived in Florianópolis, Brazil and began teaching English
• December 2014: Left Florianópolis, traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina
• February 2015: Began work as freelance tech writer via the Internet
• June 2015: Returned to US – I had packed WAY too much!
• September 2015: Went to Cozumel, Mexico – just because I can do that now
• November 2015: Returned to US
• January 2016: I don’t know – I haven’t figured that out yet

I learned a lot. I learned a lot about other people, other cultures, and other languages. I learned a lot about my family and friends. I learned a lot about myself. I faced and overcame situations. I fought personal demons – got my ass kicked once in a while – but eventually came out on top. I met awesome people in every country I visited, both locals and other fellow travelers.

Since I’ve been back in the US, I’ve had some people ask me if I’m done with this experience. Huh? Done? Are you kidding me?! I’m just starting to get the hang of it! As far as I’m concerned, the US has just become another stop along the way to somewhere else. No – not done. Stay tuned.

So that being said, this year, one of my goals is to write more often so that you’ll be getting more than just a bulleted list of what I’ve been up to once every couple of years. If you’d like to keep up with things on a regular basis, I’d be honored if you would take a couple of minutes to sign up for my email list on my website: whereveryoufindme.com.

Thanks for spending a few minutes reading – we’ll talk soon!

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