Steve Jobs once said: “Your time is limited. So, don’t waste it living somebody else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let other people’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
This quote didn’t fully resonate with me until I recently began following my heart and walking my own path. I did everything that society says you should do. I went to college, graduated and made solid plans to move onto law school. However, a few months after graduation, I decided that I didn’t want to go to law school. As a reaction to my decision, my mother sternly advised: “These days a college degree is equivalent to a high school diploma; you need even more education now if you want to be successful.” Panicked, I quickly heeded her advice and began looking at other graduate programs. While searching, I started working a steady stream of short term jobs by way of a temp agency, going to graduate school fairs and trying to figure out my next professional move. Once again, I came to the final decision that I did not want to go to graduate school. Instead, I got a full time corporate job.
While working in the corporate world, I soon became depressed. I felt miserable and was incredibly unfulfilled. My daily duties required that I basically become a robot. In June of 2017, desperately in need of a creative outlet and with a desire to develop my love for photography, I started a travel Instagram account. I called it@the.destined.gypsy and I immediately followed the account by creating a personal travel blog. My aim was to inspire myself and others to travel and live their best lives. Writing has always been my first love. I wanted to challenge myself to pursue my creative passions and prove to myself I could be more than a robot in a tailored women’s business suit. With that aim, in June, I went on two trips: the 1st was to Tulum, Mexico and the 2nd was to Negril, Jamaica!
I was still working at my corporate job, Monday through Friday, 40-45 hours a week. I had no time for myself. I had no time for my writing and no time to meditate. I had let self-care go down by the wayside. At the time, I was in therapy twice a week to treat my borderline personality disorder and had fallen into a total state of emotional depression. In short, I was far from my best self. I was spiraling downhill, working at a job I hated and simply existing in my life that was passing me by. In October, a new friend, Catrin, introduced me to “The Limitless Girls.” They are a group of empowered millennial women who work online. Without hesitation, I decided to join this amazing group of digital nomads from around the world. Among these amazing millennials, were women stretched throughout New York, parts of Europe, Canada and Australia. We had and have so much in common and we are all craving the same thing: Professional Freedom.
I have accepted that I’m not meant to be one of “those people” in society. You know, the robots who wake up at the same time every day, clock into work at the same time, and just go through the motions of their lives. I am not going to be the person who accepts that their life is not their own, and that they belong to their job. The person who is miserable and working just to pay bills. The person that remains sedentary for years in a job s/he hates because “it pays well.” That existence isn’t for me, and I was never meant to be that person. I’ve always been a free spirit who loves to travel and explore the world and who is chasing a life with no limits. I want to live a life that is daring, full of beautiful adventures and with amazing stories to tell.
In early October of 2017, I launched The Destined Gypsy, and then I put in my 2-week notice at my job. In November, I flew to Bali, Indonesia, where I stayed for a month. I have never felt so free. I explored beautiful jungles, made furry monkey friends and learned to surf at the beach. While living my best life, for the first time I enjoyed working online with the Limitless Girls. While in Bali, work did not feel like work. My office was everywhere; the tables in the café of the surf camp where I was staying, the beach at sunset or even the rooftop bar at X-Bar in Canggu. All I needed to work was WIFI and my cellphone or laptop.
I’ve been working online for a few months now and can safely say, I love it! In addition to my work with the Limitless Girls, I also work online as a virtual assistant. I’m basically an online secretary. Being a location independent Boss Babe and working from anywhere has given my life my freedom and opportunities that I didn’t even know were possible. I wake up when I want; I schedule my own work hours; I travel as often as I want. When I was in Bali this past November I fell in love with the beauty of the country, the people and the culture. I am very excited to be taking another one-way flight there in May and changing my home base to Bali for the next six months to a year.
Thanks to my online business with the Limitless Girls, my virtual assisting, and my travel concierge business that I run from my website I can live life on my own terms. I am my own boss and exploring my passions. I have been growing as a photographer, growing my travel Instagram, my blog following and am finally chasing my dreams. Thanks to the opportunities as a digital nomad and deciding to make necessary changes in my life, I am happier than I have ever been, stronger than I have ever been, and I feel like my life is my own again. I don’t have to worry about being in the same place and doing the same thing years from now. My life has purpose, unlimited potential and happiness. I am fulfilled and doing everything that I love.
Joybell C said: “We can’t be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason you don’t have something better.”
It was tough making the decision to break out of society’s box and live my life for me, unapologetically. It is hard sometimes to choose the path less wandered. Many people may view the life of a digital nomad as unconventional because you don’t sit in an office, clock in and out every day, or have limited vacation days. But I’m thankful for my digitally nomadic life. Initially, there was opposition and there were critics. Thankfully my courage outweighed my fear of embarking on the unknown. Change can be scary, but I’ve realized that there is something even scarier than change, and that’s staying in the same place.
