ALL OVER THE PLACE

So, there’s this funny thing I do.

I’ll make these huge decisions, or a cosmic change will happen in my life, and I’ll tell a couple people. As I take my time with letting people know, I’ll lose track of who I’ve talked to. Then even more time will go by, and I’ll assume I must have told the people closest to me about this colossal shift. Then because of that assumption, I tend to casually bring up these insanely un-casual things going on in my life to people I’m close with who I haven’t told anything to. Which then results in a lighthearted exasperation from my friends and family surrounding any travel plans, job changes, and relationship statuses. It’s gotten to the point that many of my people just assume there’s something huge going on in my life that they don’t know about at any moment.

Ever since Evyn found out I was going to Iceland through a Venmo transaction, I’ve been acutely aware of how bad it’s gotten. Many of my close people have suggested that I make a blog to keep people up to date with what’s going on with me. I’ve pondered it for a while, and after working past the initial thoughts of blogging feeling like a bumptious and conceited pastime, I decided I love the idea of being able to keep y’all in the loop while I’m…all over the place. So hopefully I will be able to keep up with this, and make it something fun, and clue you into the shenanigans that I am constantly finding myself entangled in.

example of said shenanigans (joshua tree, january ‘23)

So to kick it off, a brief update:

Over the last year and a half, Shelbie and I went through with our plan to move out to Los Angeles, which we did in June of last year. It was an amazing adventure, where we got to meet some lifelong friends and experience the world in a way that we never had before. There were so many great things to come out of our time there, and hopefully in keeping up with this blog, I can share some of it with you all. Ultimately, we decided that Southern California was not the place for us right now and having more freedom to travel and explore the world is what was really important.

my favorite local hike in Franklin Canyon (LA)

(Side note: I feel strongly about not speaking for Shelbie; although we do most everything together, we are not the same person and I don’t want to claim ownership of her experience. But it is safe to assume that when I am talking about where I’m going and what I’m doing at this point in time, Shelbie is also doing that with me, and acting as an equally driving force for all of these decisions. Perhaps she will hop on here to share her own feelings, but for now I will try my best to speak for myself.)

The desire to live and work abroad has been growing steadily within me for a long time now and being in California drew into focus my need to grow and explore that part of my life. Collectively, Shelb and I formulated some ideas and possibilities into making that dream a reality. It was her influence that brought about looking into getting TEFL certified and teaching English abroad. We were both English majors and literature enthusiasts, and Shelbie has been talking about wanting to pursue this for years. My motivating priorities: to live abroad, work towards fluency in Spanish, and form some semblance of stability amidst a rather unstable lifestyle.

So, the wheels are in motion! This month we head to Costa Rica (one of my favorite and most cherished countries of all my travels) to do an in-country certification to Teach English as a Foreign Language. While there we’ll have the opportunity to make connections, search job openings, and decide on the country where we’ll sign our 2024 contract. The hope is to start somewhere in Latin America, where we can work on our Spanish and adventure at living in a new country. In our purview has been Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Costa Rica. Don’t worry, we take safety very seriously in our research, along with opportunity,culture and adventure. I am confident that wherever we decide will be a perfect fit for this part of our journey, but I’ll keep y’all updated.

Right now is all preparation. We’ve officially landed back in Florida (for the meantime), to get ourselves together before heading out of country. I am really happy to be spending quality time with my parents, who I missed hanging out with when I was in LA. Staying in Fort Myers after graduation (through COVID) grew our relationship in the sweetest way and hanging out with them is one of the greatest simple joys in my life. I’m nervous and delighted to be going back to school, if even for a short time. Part of me has really missed learning and reading and studying in a structured environment, especially now that the fog of overwhelm and burnout isn’t associated with school. The TEFL program is really rigorous, and next month I’ll be reporting to you all from the middle of the craziness. I’m really stoked to give an inside look into how all of that goes for us. We were given a preliminary grammar course to do before we begin full time, and we’re nerding out so hard on conjunctions and adverbs. It’s a little ridiculous.

If you’re reading this, thank you! It’s so important to me that you’re here. If by some miracle of the universe I continue with this, I hope it keeps you, my loved ones, from finding out about my huge life changes via mobile payment apps. And maybe inspires you to tell me a bit about what you have going on in your own grand adventure.

Love you guys!

Lauren x