My Life Before Traveling

Havana, Cuba - 2017

Hi! It’s my first blog about traveling. Teaching English is my first hobby, but traveling like a maniac is my second. Photography is my third. It’s a nice mix!

Students often ask me about my life before I became an English teacher. My life before I started traveling around the world and taking photos. This is a blog post to introduce myself a little more, and give a little more information about who I am and why I do what I do.

We’ll start in 2013.

I was working a really terrible job in grocery retail sales with low pay for very hard work. Life was stressful, and I was really fed up with the corporate system. I was giving all of my energy to a job that I didn’t like and getting little to show for it. The companies had all the power and the workers got little in return. In the USA it’s very common to see people living like robots, going to work with no type of passion or emotion, day after day, repeating the same menial and monotonous tasks. I could see this and I really didn’t want it for myself. That, and I had absolutely no direction. I didn’t see a future for myself in any career in a rapidly changing world.

That’s when I got injured.

Medial Epicondylitis, I’ll never forget the name of that diagnosis. In other words, nerve damage in my left arm, from my elbow to my pinky finger, and then back up again to my shoulder. It was a horrible sensation! I lost all of the strength in my arm. My job at the time was physically demanding, so I had to sit out for a while. I couldn’t work out either, and that was something I really loved, to boost my energy levels and give me motivation.

So, I quit my job.

I decided to go to college to be a teacher. I decided to reinvent myself.

I had recently heard about how teaching English could open doors. Those days, I was dreaming of how to get out of the corporate world. I wanted to travel and see the real world. I wanted to experience life outside of retail stores, even outside of America. I wanted to connect with people on a more personal level and learn about what the world could offer me. I wanted to chase my dreams.

For physical therapy, and to help my arm recover, I went to a local reservoir every day to walk, jog, and build my body back up. It was a peaceful and serene place, a perfect place to dream about what life could offer. I got more motivated than I had ever been in my life, and when I finally recovered with confidence, I signed up for college, got a part-time job, and started the process of changing my life.

It would end up being the best decision of my life.