Blog | Wherever You Find Me

Where the Hell Have I Been?!

2016-10-24 / Shawn

Temple in Chiang Mai, Thailand

I know, I know! First off, I need to apologize to all of you. Back in January of this year, I wrote a 2 year anniversary post that explained what I had been up to since I left the corporate gig in 2014 and began this digital nomad way of life. At the end of that post, I said that one of my goals for this year was going to be to write more often so all of you would have a better idea of what I was up to throughout the year.

I haven’t been doing such a great job of reaching that goal. As a matter of fact, I have only written one blog post this year so far, so for leaving you hanging since April, I apologize.

Now at the time I wrote that anniversary post, I really had no plans for what I was going to do in 2016 yet. But, when you get to pick and choose what you want to do and when and where you want to do it, things can change pretty quickly, and that’s what happened this year.

As I sat here writing this in Chiang Mai, Thailand in October, I looked over at my notes about where I’ve been and what I’ve done this year. It didn’t seem like all that much when I first scanned through it in my head, but when I wrote it all down, here’s what it looked like:

Visited 3 continents:
- South America
- Europe
- Asia (I’m old school and still call Europe and Asia separate continents)
Visited 8 countries:
- Colombia
- St. Maarten (the Dutch part)
- Portugal
- Sri Lanka
- Thailand (twice)
- Vietnam
- England (November)
- Ireland (November)
Visited 4 islands:
- St. Maarten
- Sri Lanka
- Koh Samui
- Ireland
Crossed the Atlantic Ocean by ship
Visited 17 different cities:
- Cartagena, Philipsburg, Lisbon
- Colombo, Dambulla, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Kataragama, Galle
- Chiang Mai, Koh Samui, Bangkok
- Ho Chi Minh City, Danang, Hanoi
- London
- Dublin

Again, as I think about writing posts about each location, I clearly should have been doing a better job of writing about those experiences as they were happening! Piecing them back together from memory is going to be a chore. I was journaling along the way, but even that got off track, so the brain cells are going to have to rally together in order to fill in the gaps.

Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi, Vietnam

What I Did Get Done

However, even though I didn’t write on the blog much, I did get a few social media channels set up to be companions to the blog:

A Wherever You Find Me Facebook page. Sometimes posting to Facebook is just easier than writing up a full-on blog post, especially from a phone, so check out and “Like” the Facebook page to see more of the things that happened to me on the fly.
A Wherever You Find Me YouTube channel. I brought a GoPro camera with me so I could experiment with creating video content, and I think I got some pretty interesting footage. Check out the channel to see things that I’ve posted. Also, please subscribe to the channel so you’ll know when I post new videos there. Feel free to post comments and ask questions about what you see there as well.
A Wherever You Find Me Instagram Account, because some things are better told with just pictures.
Finally, a Wherever You Find Me Twitter Account. You can’t deny the power of the Twitta, and I want to try to leverage all the different social channels to get the word out there.

Originally I was going to include short summaries of what I did in each location within this post and then write longer posts later. However, that post turned out to be gigantic! So, I’m going to stop this post here, but I’ll be creating more detailed posts on each location to share some of the cool things that happened in each one. Stay tuned for the individual articles. Connect with me on your favorite social networks and we’ll keep in touch!

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You Just Never Know

2016-04-28 / Shawn

Wins come in different shapes and sizes in this lifestyle. Sometimes it’s successfully finding your way around a new country/city you’re visiting to get to where you’re staying, sometimes it’s navigating your way through a conversation in a foreign language for the first time. Those types of experiences can seem daunting at first, but once you break through them, the sense of accomplishment you’ll feel is an awesome feeling! I had a win yesterday that had nothing to do with a foreign country, but about a basic life necessity – getting work. 🙂 I’ve done freelance technical writing for a while as I’ve been on road (thank you, Internet), but I haven’t been working these last few months. This was mostly by choice, but I knew that with this trip coming up, it was time to really buckle down and start trying to rustle up some dollars. Unfortunately, a lot of times, fun comes with a price tag. 🙂

Anyway – I had been submitting proposals for the last couple of weeks on Upwork.com, a website for freelancers and other contract type work for various tech writing jobs. Nothing was clicking and I wasn’t getting any responses to my proposals. Out of the blue one day, I got an Upwork invitation to interview for a gig to help a startup company write blog posts for their upcoming software release. I had a phone interview yesterday with the guy who was coordinating their marketing efforts. He and I hit it off both from the perspective of how my skills can help his company and just personally. He was very interested in what it was like for me living this type of life, so I got a chance to give him a short rundown of how Shawn 2.0’s life has been going.

So, he hired me to do the gig! 🙂 The company name is spatially.com and they make some interesting software that helps brick and mortar businesses determine where to find out where their target customers are and where to locate their stores. I’m pretty excited to jump into a new project and help a new company get launched out into the wild! Now I’ll have something to do in addition to exploring the city and practicing Spanish!

#Winning! (sorry, Charlie)

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Two Years Gone

2016-01-06 / Shawn

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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Why Can’t My Baby Learn Faster?

2015-08-29 / Shawn

My baby turned 1 year old on April Fool’s Day. There wasn’t a big party, balloons, ice cream or presents like most kids have. No big April Fool’s Day jokes, although the irony of having this particular day mark the beginning of someone’s whole new life wasn’t lost on me.

Like any parent on such a significant day, I took some time to reflect back over that first year of my child’s life. As I stood there looking, I remembered how many things happened during that first year. Beginning in such a totally helpless and vulnerable state, they need help to survive from everyone around them. Can’t speak a word, so they can’t tell anyone what’s wrong or what’s right. Smiling, laughing, pointing and yes, sometimes yelling and crying is all they’ve got. But people figure it out. And the child continues to learn and grow. Starts to crawl from one place to the next. Their world is getting bigger. They babble out some things that sound almost like words. They get what they want from their helpers the very first time. Any day now, they’re going to pull themselves up on that coffee table and start stumbling their way across the living room. There is still A LOT ahead for them as they continue to learn and grow, but what a significant time that first year is, right?

As I looked away from the mirror and looked out my window at this wonderful view of Buenos Aires, it’s hard to believe it’s been a year since I first left the United States. My experiences over the year have been similar in many ways to that developing 1 year old child. Left a comfortable environment and went to a place that was completely different. Couldn’t speak the language. Everyone was a stranger. Had to learn how to get around. Tried to figure out where/how to fit into social situations and the culture.

The learning comes from the struggle…

But I’m a grown man. This ought to be easy enough, right? I have years of life experiences behind me that have taught me how to handle new situations and overcome difficult ones, right? Well, yes and no. While it’s true that I’ve certainly learned from experiences I’ve had in life, this one has been like no other. There are days when it feels like it’s coming together, and then there are days when it feels like I should just pack up my shit and go back where I came from. It’s on those tough days that I have to remind myself that I’m basically a 1 year old child in this experience. I’ve chosen to strip my life back down to just about ground zero in many ways. Why am I surprised when it turns out to be hard? OK then, this is when I get to play the grown up card: I can step back for a moment and use my powers of intellect and reasoning to assess the situation and come to the realization that these things I come up against can all be dealt with or overcome, I just need a strategy and a plan to make that happen. But wait…is it really that hard? Does a 1 year old baby do that? Nope, the baby just keeps plowing ahead, learning by doing, day after day until they get it. Learning things at this basic of a level takes time and practice and the willingness to engage in order to make it happen. Pretty simple in theory, but I just need to keep in mind that the learning comes from the struggle, so don’t run from the struggle.

_______________________

I started that post back in April while I was living in Buenos Aires, but I never finished it. In keeping with it’s theme, I decided I needed to go back and finish it and post it. I struggled. I learned.

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Hello World! No, Really!

2015-03-22 / Shawn

When I first set this blog up, the WordPress folks saw fit to give me a sample post with the title of “Hello World!” on my site that contained a few lines of text so I could see how a post would look. I didn’t think much about it as I got the blog all set up. I figured at some point I would just delete it and replace it with my own wonderfully compelling words and add a much catchier title.

However, as I began writing this, I realized that “Hello World” is actually a pretty appropriate title for this post. OK, I tweaked it a little bit so people wouldn’t think I was just too lazy to delete the default title, but the general theme is still the same – Hello World: look – here I am – out here for the world to see now.

A couple of years ago, I wouldn’t have (and probably couldn’t have) imagined it. Sitting on the balcony of my own apartment in Buenos Aires, Argentina, having coffee in the cool morning sun, and plunking out my first blog post while David Sanborn plays in the background and the pigeons watch curiously. It would have seemed surreal. But not because I hadn’t dreamed of doing something like that, but because I didn’t think I could actually ever do it. Not in the cards for me. Need to win the lottery for it to even come close to being a reality.

Another beautiful sunrise in Buenos Aires!

But here I sit – plunking away. I’ve done more to change my life in the last 12 months than I would have ever expected. I plan to test my wings as a wordslinger here, writing about things that are happening, things that have happened, and probably just some general thoughts on life. Sign up for email updates so you’ll know when I add new content. I’ll do my best to make it time well spent for you.

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