I’m not one to bask in compliments: they make me uncomfortable and awkward and get my brain to spit out an insincere compliment back to them (oh, well.. I think your shoes are really pretty too!)
But when I ran into a kindred, free spirit while in Key West and spilled my plans to move to St. Thomas to work at a hotel, including all the gaping holes and incomplete details in my plan, she said, “I’m proud of you.”
Coming from a similar free spirit: a girl I met while in lifeguard training classes 7 years ago; the first person to get me drunk after my high school boyfriend broke my heart; a girl who moved to Key West to work on boats: it felt genuine and inspiring.
Who hasn't wanted to quit their job, move to a tropical land where it's a constant 72 degrees and your "other" outfit is a bathing suit? Who hasn't daydreamed about leaving their desk jobs to work in sun: where clouds are few and smiles are plenty? I've spent a ridiculous amount of time thinking about snorkeling when I should have been updating website content. But it's the very few that actually peruse those dreams.
It's the bravehearts, the trailblazers, the individual thinkers who decide they deserve better and move away from a place they once called home. It's an elite club who can say they've lived in a foreign land: a club who is blessed with a number of people who care about them and want to see them succeed. I couldn't have even begin to start thinking about moving abroad without the constant love and support from my mom.
She figured she was dealt a seriously independent-minded child once I went to school and at 5-years-old told her I no longer needed or wanted to go because "I taught myself how to read" in one day at kindergarten.
I can only hope to continue to make her and every other free spirit who's been brave enough to move abroad, proud. (cue Drake's cheesy yet completely lovable, 'Make Me Proud')
But when I ran into a kindred, free spirit while in Key West and spilled my plans to move to St. Thomas to work at a hotel, including all the gaping holes and incomplete details in my plan, she said, “I’m proud of you.”
Coming from a similar free spirit: a girl I met while in lifeguard training classes 7 years ago; the first person to get me drunk after my high school boyfriend broke my heart; a girl who moved to Key West to work on boats: it felt genuine and inspiring.
Who hasn't wanted to quit their job, move to a tropical land where it's a constant 72 degrees and your "other" outfit is a bathing suit? Who hasn't daydreamed about leaving their desk jobs to work in sun: where clouds are few and smiles are plenty? I've spent a ridiculous amount of time thinking about snorkeling when I should have been updating website content. But it's the very few that actually peruse those dreams.
It's the bravehearts, the trailblazers, the individual thinkers who decide they deserve better and move away from a place they once called home. It's an elite club who can say they've lived in a foreign land: a club who is blessed with a number of people who care about them and want to see them succeed. I couldn't have even begin to start thinking about moving abroad without the constant love and support from my mom.
She figured she was dealt a seriously independent-minded child once I went to school and at 5-years-old told her I no longer needed or wanted to go because "I taught myself how to read" in one day at kindergarten.
I can only hope to continue to make her and every other free spirit who's been brave enough to move abroad, proud. (cue Drake's cheesy yet completely lovable, 'Make Me Proud')
me circa 5 years old, being sassy per usual.
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