Why change now?

Although this isn't my first blog, it is my first attempt at a blog for all the world to see. I decided to create this blog so that I could get some practice writing about my travels, to get experience that I might convert into a future job.

See, about 7 weeks ago, I was let go from the job that I have held for the last 8 years. It was with one of those corporate giants and I have decided that it didn't really meet my interests well enough. So at this late stage in my career, I am going to make a change. I love travel and cultures and languages, as do so many people. But I am tired of envying all those others who do what they really love. I need to find a way that I can to. It might be travel writing, it might be getting into the tourism industry, it might be starting my own business. Whatever it ends up being, I want to change direction and go for the brass ring.

Although my life might appear pretty ordinary to many, a single mom of 2 boys who works at a computer day in and out, goes to soccer games and spends her free time visiting friends and taking care of the family, it really is much more than that and I have dreams of something bigger, something more exciting and something more meaningful.

I have not just discovered this love of the world. This blog is titled "Wayfarers & Vagabonds" for a reason. I am a wayfarer and a vagabond, and I have been as long as I can remember. My first trip to a different country was when I was about 10 and my parents took me and two of my sisters to Guadalajara, Mexico. My memories of that trip are just snippets but they are vivid and moving in a way nothing else in my childhood was.

We travelled through Mexico on a slow train, eating chicken tacos as almost every meal. We had a cabin in the sleeper car and the novelty of it all made it quite an adventure. The colonial buildings and the park and plaza were so exotic for a kid from the suburbs of Southern California that I couldn't imagine anything more wonderful. But it was the people that made me know that I would always want to travel. We met a family in Guadalajara, friends of my great aunt and uncle, and they treated us with such hospitality and affection, you would think we were long lost relatives. The sound of the language grabbed me then as well and I fell in love for the first time, with a man about 17 years my senior, named Armando. As we drove away from their house, after an amazing and exotic meal and laughter and jokes, conveyed with a lot of sign language, I sat in the back seat of the rental car, looking out the back window, crying over the end of such a wonderful experience.

Fortunately for me, the international and intercultural experiences just kept on coming, thanks to my parents openness and interest in getting to know new people. One weekend, we hosted two Japanese businessmen, one of whom was named Mr. Toyota. My sister and I thought that was just the best name he could have. After that we hosted two Brazilian students, Luiz and Tony, and their guide, Leo. That weekend caused a pattering in my heart for all Brazilians and might explain why I later married one. But it wasn't until Berit came to stay with us for several weeks that I saw that it was possible for me to achieve some of the things that I wanted, to learn another language and to travel. She came to stay with us during her trip around the United States. She was from Sweden but had lived in Spain for quite a while and spoke fluent Spanish. I was about 12 at the time and I remember sitting in her room and talking to her about all her experiences. I remember being enthralled when, on a day-trip to Tijuana, Mexico, Berit bought a bag of sweets and then walked through the streets handing them out to all the children, while chattering on with them in Spanish. I wanted so badly to be able to do that. I wanted that life.

My family continued to invite people from around the world into our home and expand my love of and fascination with the world. We hosted three exchange students, two from Brazil and one from Sri Lanka, then later hosted the brother of one of the Brazilians for about six months. My younger sister and I both went abroad with AFS as exchange students, me to Germany and she to Colombia. But that was all just the beginning.....