Encrucijada.
A year ago, I was wrapping up my first official Turnaround and all of my projects were starting back up. I had a sense of accomplishment that I hadn't really felt since I graduated from Howard in 2010 (Another story for another day). My work was completed on time and on budget (one project came in under budget which is like a Gold Medal in Corporate America as far as I'm concerned!). I had worked on average 13 hour days for 31 days (including weekends), with only one day off, which I used to drive down to Galveston and spend time with one of my favorite people visiting for a work event, Leah (hey girl, I miss you & Sam so much!).
The Third Coast... and my Prius :-)
Also, I was in the middle of a season of interviewing for my next move. I was awaiting the results from my Skype interview for the Peace Corps in Perú & I was also being brought in for interviews on the East Coast. I was either ready to walk away from my engineering career for a season or ready to finally move back to be closer to my family. Yes, these were two very different directions; I was at a fork in the road and I knew the day to choose would be fast approaching. It's also very *very* hard to focus on your own personal future while being committed to your team at work who has no idea that you have one foot out of the door. That was a very hard & lonely season! But that's life. I knew I had to leave.
Spoiler Alert: I chose Peace Corps.
I really cannot account my decision making process to anything more than a still, small voice that gave me the idea to GO in a bold way.
I sit here in Ecuador (yes, not Perú but that's another blog post), sometimes (daily) wondering why I'm even here. I'm told this is a very normal feeling, and I have heard many of my compañeros share the same thoughts of wonder. And I still don't have all the answers, though God knows I want them ASAP!
I have been here for over 5 months (wow, right?!), yet I feel a LIFETIME away from the world I used to know;
riding my bike to an Astro's game (go 'Stros!!);
running on the rail trail in EaDo;
bacon, egg & cheese on a croissant with a chai latte from Kaffeine in Third Ward;
standing on line at The Breakfast Klub
hours spent in traffic on 288, 225, Beltway 8, 45, 10 & 610
meet-ups with my Nomadness family
pool parties at Post 510
One of my Sunday Funday Pool Parties... Man, I miss those days! I miss all of you!
But then I remember the still, small voice that told me it was time to once again fold up my tents, pack my bags & venture to the next place in my destiny; both literally and figuratively. And just as another blogger wrote on her recent decision to leave NYC: "...it was the same voice that told me to move to NYC in the first place. So when it hinted that it was time for me to move on, I listened."
I walked past those crossroads, la encrucijada. I got on a plane to Ecuador on May 31, 2017 knowing that my life would never -- could never -- be the same. And though I am not closer to the answer one year later why I turned down those career advancing, salary enhancing job offers on the East Coast for a life in the complete unknown in a town called Paján in a country I didn't even initially select -- that voice, the Holy Spirit, is the same voice that comforts me by saying:
"I know the plans I have for you... plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you a hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11
Hello November.
☼
