Good morning! Today is usually the day for a Guatemalan life recap, so I am publishing a post I wrote back when I got there, about the reasons why I ended up there, hope you like it!
Cancún, Mexico. I just flew in, and my dream house, on a little patch of land by a big lake in Northern Guatemala is a 12 hour bus ride away. Sigh. I try to see the positive things: after all, I am saving $900 by not flying directly, I can have delicious tacos in Cancún, and get to see a part of Mexico that I don’t know yet. I am far from imagining that the best of it all will be the bus driver.
A young man, 30 year-old or so, greets me with a big smile. And greets everyone the same, men, women, young or old. He makes sure we are all comfortable, jokes about the fact that I’ll be there until the last stop and I should sleep ”three times, then when (you) wake up, we’ll be arriving”. Save for the fact that he drives like the typical Mexican, a bit too fast, with long pushes on the brakes where you wonder whether he is just taking a curve too fast or if we are going to collide with a truck, he will be a doll for over twelve hours.
While we sleep, he drives, and when we stop, he asks us if we are well, cracks a few jokes and does his job as well as possible. He reminds me of myself, fifteen years ago, when I started working at Mc Donald’s during my first year of college. I was so happy to have a job, a simple one, but a job I would do well, go back home, and forget all about. No responsibilities, no worries, just a few hours in and a paycheck at the end of the month. I had been a piano teacher and a tutor during high school, which I was good at too, but having to deal with kids forced to learn the piano and frustrated parents when I would tell them that their kids should try karate instead was not easy.
Anyway, as the bus rides through the Yucatan Peninsula, I reflect on my ”professional” career. After a bachelor degree, I went straight to Business School to get my master. Never wondered much what I wanted to do with my life, just pleased my family and followed my peers, college was the thing to do, and once again, I was not struggling or anything, so it should be my thing after all. During my degree, I had a variety of students jobs that globally made me happy, even when I was a waitress coming home at 2am and waking up at 8am to attend class. It changed while in business school, an IT company paid for my tuition and I had to work for them three days a week. Normal, easy, 9-5 hours and two days at school, what a change from my double shifts for the past three years! Except that I didn’t fit in.
My job was a bit technical, and included a bit of sales, which I am absolutely not made for. I am an introvert and when people come to me to buy something, like they did at Mc Donald’s, I am happy to help them, but when I have to convince them to buy a computer, I can’t. Watching that happy Mexican bus driver made me wonder if it was the simplicity of the task that I was longing for, or simply that I hadn’t found my calling. Am I made to serve burgers for the rest of my life?
Traveling around the US
After my master, I traveled the world for a year, then worked for a law firm in Guatemala, a green energy company in Barcelona, and an IT company in the UK. Every time the slightest glimpse of corporate life or rate race came up, I stopped liking the job that I was doing. I hold to the last one in the UK in order to buy a flat, and then quit at the end of 2009. The last months at a job I loathed and was miserable at helped me think about what I really wanted. Freedom, independence, no boss, no rat race came to mind. I started writing travel articles for a few websites and have been living off my writing for the past three years. My investments could more than cover my living expenses but I like to keep busy.
I have lived in Morocco for a year, and traveled around Europe and North America on a motorcycle for two years. I am free and do not have a boss, or a working schedule anymore. But I missed social interaction. I missed what this bus driver has every day: he is useful, he helps people, and people are grateful. Helping is selfish in the end, we do it to feel good, to feel included in something, a community, to know that people need us.
How could I do both things, be my own boss, with a flexible schedule, and yet interact with people and give them a service they are happy to pay for? I had this dream for a long time, to run a small guest house. Mix a simple life, where I would do most house maintenance and upkeep myself, cook for my guests and make a living, with the social part of the hotel, meeting people from all over the world, and showing them my little corner.
Hiking in Guatemala (with my jacket!)
This dream should come true very soon. I bought a patch of land in Guatemala, Central America. A waterfront property next to many interesting Mayan ruins. At last, I feel like I have a project that can fulfill me and give me purpose. It is going to be a long road until I can open the doors to tourists, a road that I will travel with a smile.
Future little guest house in Guatemala
What is your dream? How does your definition of a dream life evolve with time?
This post was featured in Money Bulldog, thank you!
You have really done so much with your life Pauline. I really envy how easily you can just pack up your life and do something completely different.
It has its drawbacks too, but it is pretty fun to just pick a place and get on the plane!
Great post Pauline! I think you have done very well and doing something like running a guest house is totally something I see you doing very well at. You’ve been able to do something that so many want to do, but hold themselves back for one reason or another. We’re in the late stages of the beginning of ours in running our own business and giving back to the community around us. Our big dream is evolving over time, but definitely involves travelling and possibly moving. That’s the beauty of our business – it can be done from anywhere.
Sounds like an awesome plan John, more freedom is also more time for the kids and more quality time as a family.
Holy cow that’s a powerful piece! I love the bus ride…it helps your narrative of the many jobs come to life because your life is like that bus ride. Huh? I know! I took English 101 and “got it,” huh? 😉
Seriously, it’ll be too long a comment to get into my dream but I think that life is all about picking paths and exploring. Whether you climb one ladder or twenty, it’s fun to decide. Today I decided to launch a new podcast and scrap a perfectly fine old one. There was a ton of fun in making those moves.
I worked at McDonald’s too! I was the best drive-thru guy ev-ar.
haha, I loved making burgers, not so much facing angry customers!
My dream is still evolving. At the simplest level, I want to enjoy what I do and have time to spend with my family. The other goals all stem from that. The “what I do” part is what I am working to figure out. I think you set a great example of living how you truly want to live and making changes when necessary.
I think dreams will evolve all life long, that is the great thing about them, you reach for something and then retarget as you go.
Love this post. I’m still unsure of what my dream is. It seems to change every single day! I need to start writing things down or making a blog post on it.
make a post!
We’re still working on exactly what our dream looks like, but I think simple living, long term travel, and volunteering to help others are probably going to play a pretty big role in it.
I see we have similar plans. It is nice that you have a rough draft at least, something to keep motivating and focusing on the big picture.
Wow that is seriously pretty amazing. One day, I want to be wealthy enough to start a charity. Maybe start a private college or something. I want to recruit potential students differently than the Ivy League’s due. I guess it’s my way of bucking the status quo.
Wow a private college, we are talking big wealth! My neighbor in Guatemala gives scholarship to the most deserving kids in the village so the go study secondary school in a bigger town, I think that is a great gesture.
I know – I’ll need a lot of money for that. My big issue with college is that I found most of the stuff I learned to be useless out here on the real world. I want to start a school where I teach more pragmatic lessons.
But then again, that’s a long, long road ahead. And of course, the money….
I think lots of people have a dream, but you actually made yours happen, and that’s incredible. I”m not sure what my ultimate dream is at this point, but having the time to plan and think without working myself into the ground is a big start. I think having the freedom to make choices not based on debt is a huge bonus.
it most certainly is. Once you are free you have more time to define priorities, and do things just because you want to do them, which is really awesome.
Pauline, you are always an inspiration. You have so many stories to tell and you have done so much. No wonder so many are jealous of your lifestyle. My dream is to be financially stable enough to go traveling with my wife and child someday. I want to be able to pursue things that make me happy and not worry about the rat race. I am slowly working my way to that point, but still have a ways to go.
Slowly but surely, you’ll get there sooner than you think. When I was trying to reach my goals, I had a number in mind, but at the same time reduced my “needs” and simplified my life so much I could get by with half that number and exit the rat race 10 years sooner.
How awesome! You are an inspiration! Like you, I picked a different country to live out my dream… the States. My dreams are far less exhausting, though. It took me 60 years to discover what I really like, which is writing. (Interesting that we both picked on the same topic for a blog post today — great minds think alike! 🙂 )
We do, thank you William!
You have done so many amazing things! I’ve always said you have the adventurous spirit that I don’t quite have…but everyone is totally different! I love hearing your stories!
thanks, glad you like them! you have a pretty great life too, adventurous or not, it fits you well.
I love your pictures, Pauline! I live in such a flat, ugly, and boring part of the country.
but you get to sunny beaches pretty often!
Great story, Pauline! I love hearing about how people got to where they are now. Sometimes I worry that I don’t fit in at my current job, though I do the best I can at the tasks at hand.
In particular, I found this interesting “I was so happy to have a job, a simple one, but a job I would do well, go back home, and forget all about.” I think this is why I have fond memories of working at Pizza Hut, which was my first job. I worked like mad for minimum wage but it was relatively simple, manual labor, and I was earning my OWN money! Not to mention my manager was awesome and I liked the people I worked with.
the first paycheck also makes you feel like a millionaire, doesn’t it? It is too bad we lose our sense of wonder with time.
Wow, amazing! I’m still not sure what our dreams entail but we have talked about them. Ideas include owning our business, having no debt, traveling the world, learning new languages.
it is great that you talk about them. i try to talk out loud, to whoever would listen and find that it makes me accountable for achieving those dreams!
I know. At first I thought we didn’t agree. He didn’t want to really travel the world, live elsewhere, experience different cultures, learn new languages, but he has changed his tune. So wonderful!
Thank you for re-posting this. You have such an inspiring story and the post is a great reminder that we need to follow OUR dreams and passions. A lot of well-meaning people will tell you what to do, but only we know what our heart wants. I feel fortunate that my career is my passion, but I also have so much enthusiasm and energy around financial literacy for kids that even though I struggle to find enough hours in the day – I keep going.
Sorry I phrased that wrong, I wrote it a few months ago but hadn’t published until now! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Thanks for posting this – It’s a great summary of “how things came to be”. I think it’s amazing that you were able to identify your dream and follow it. Based on your experiences with your previous jobs, this really does seem like a great move for you. Best of luck, as always.
thank you!
I have often shared with my students dream jobs! A photographer, boat salesman or writer were my examples! All three are careers that seem ideal because you are doing something they love to do and they are getting paid for it. I never thought of my career as the destination, but instead a way to achieve my dream.
Having lived in holiday destinations, I have seen the drawbacks of “dream jobs” like tour guide or diving instructor. Doing the same excursion over and over, having to dive even when the water is cold and you don’t feel like it, wake up before the tourists, go to bed after them… and usually for a low pay because it is a dream job. Better save and go on holiday.
Awesome post. It’s funny how life meanders like that. My dream isn’t to be abroad. It’s to have a great family (3 kids), no mortgage by 30, and lots of extra wealth long before retirement with a pension. Luckily I enjoy my job so the extreme-early-retirement thing isn’t a goal.
That is a fantastic life plan! Pretty impressive if you manage to bring a couple more kids to the world and get rid of mortgage at the same time.
I’ve had a lot of dreams over the years. The ones I’ve achieved never seem to stack up to reality. So now my dream is to live a boring middle class existance.
That sounds like a great dream. Dream of being a millionaire and you’ll only be frustrated. Set an achievable goal, get there, and you will be satisfied.
I enjoyed this post, cool to get a little background on what inspired you to take this path. There are a lot of positives to living life on your terms, and getting up each day doing exactly what you want to. Not that I’m exactly doing that, but I can imagine and toward this in the future 🙂
It is weird at first, like a kid in a candy store who can eat as much candy as he likes. And then again the next day. But then you get used to it, learn moderation and enjoy the freedom greatly.
Ah I love Cancun! I went off peak when all the students and tourist crowds were gone and absolutely loved it. The water and cenotes are gorgeous and I just love the Yucatan. I want to go back to Cancun someday and also hope to explore Guatemala. So much to see!
Cancún’s region is lovely indeed, I often go to take a flight and usually enjoy a dive or a visit on the way. This time I went to Guatemala via the Tabasco region instead of via Belize, really pretty too. You are right, so many places and so little time!
You’re making me very jealous with all these pictures Pauline. As much as I’d love more time to globe trot, I do have two beautiful boys to keep me occupied instead. Thanks for including us in your carnival the other day by the way, I’ll be sure to link back up this week. Hope you’re well.
it sounds like a wonderful life plan to be the best parent and give them the best life possible. Hope they new site is going well!
Thanks for sharing that post Pauline as I hadn’t read it before. It’s amazing how you can look back to see how far you have come and what anyone can accomplish if they put their mind to it. I have no doubt in my mind that you will be very successful with the passion and drive that you have for the simplistic life filled with dreams and people. Keep at it mate!! The updates are one of the posts I always look forward to! Cheers
thank you for the kind words and encouragements!
Great story and now you totally have what the bus driver had. You made it so. Your writing and ideas are useful to thousands, daily. And thank you for making the point that helping is selfish in the end. It is incredible to me that some would deny this simple fact.
My goal is to have a lot more freedom and worry less about work and money. Like you I am looking at moving some place where the money I have now can be spent on more for less and my family will have more time to spend with one another. Really like the points you made about at some point just being happy to have a job and at others just hating the fact you had a boss. Congrats!
thank you Thomas, hope you can achieve your dreams too! PS Guatemala is pretty awesome if you want to live well on less.
I’m not sure what my dream is yet. I think it has something to do with being a parent and maybe a math teacher, but I’m still working on it. Just hearing about your adventures gives me a sense of awe and limitless possibilities. Thanks for sharing!