2018 – talk about a rollercoaster.
I started off the year in Sydney with some of my closest friends. This was my first big (and very long) international trip outside of North America. It takes about a day to get there, and some serious jet lag – but I promise you it’s totally worth it. Anyways – I will get into more detail about my love for Aussies later. And Hawaii. And Paris. Anyways…
Things were going great. I came back to a raise, I took a trip to Hawaii with one of my dearest friends & my company (Geometry) granting me a dream come true. To travel around the world, while working. How? There are multiple programs that exist, I chose Wy_Co, formerly known as We Roam. A company of nothing but building up peoples’ hopes and delivering empty promises. This is where the rollercoaster comes in.
“Dear Members, there are no words for this. I am devastated to announce that our dream, our family, our company can no longer continue.”
Nathan Yates, Wy_Co CEO
1 week before I was supposed to move to Peru, I received an email from their CEO – Nathan Yates. “Dear Members, there are no words for this. I am devastated to announce that our dream, our family, our company can no longer continue.” 1 WEEK. I moved out of Chicago, sold my bed, threw out my dresser, donated a car full of items – and worst of all was robbed, both my dream and my money. To this day I have yet to receive a penny from Yates, and I know others are in the same, abandoned, boat.
This lead to somewhat of a downward spiral the last 6 months. Everything had changed. My lovely Aunt Rosie generously put a roof over my head without pay, allowing me to save up some money & sanity. Then I had to move to a friend’s apartment for a month, too. My work was patient with me between living out of a suitcase and being a part-time lawyer having to sue Wy_Co. My family was my rock – being there for me through this, my car getting broken into, being involved in a hit & run, and my aunt’s apartment getting broken into.
For more details on that hot mess, check out Bloomberg’s investigation:
It was rough, man. I genuinely tried to stay above it all, and be stronger than I was. But then it got to a point where I realized it’s okay to let yourself be down than to fake that you are not.
I am a big advocate for being in control of how you feel and your outlook. It was SO hard for me to take it easy on myself and be okay with being “down” for a bit. So many good things had happened in 2018 – but the bad ones started to make my world grey. But I knew the me I loved would never let someone keep me from fulfilling a goal or dream. So I took a leap and joined Remote Year, a company with a similar concept to Wy_Co – but they actually had their sh*t together. BIG DIFFERENCE. I will be living in a different country every month for a year, I will be making friends with perfect strangers that will become family, 47 of them to be exact, and I will be making memories that will last a lifetime.
So here I am, today. It’s January 2nd, and I am sitting on a bean bag chair in my new communal workspace in Perú. Although I have no idea what the next 12 months will hold – I feel like a million pounds have been lifted off my shoulders. I feel happy. There is no place I’d rather be. New year, new me. More to come!
How do you stay optimistic? What are your 2019 goals? Let’s kick some ass together. Comment below.
beep. 