A lovely tango couple in San Telmo my friend and I stumbled upon last time in BA–oooh, the street passion
When I came back from my 2010 travels in South America, I made a list of what I want in life, and one thing on the list is the ability to spend 2-3 months a year in another country so that I feel fresh and alive, outside the bubble of the United States. Although people called that adventure “the trip of a lifetime” I knew that I didn’t want that to be the last. I wanted to have many trips of a lifetime! This is how I would like to do it.
This time, my intention is to keep working and tap into my creativity in South America. I’ll be working remotely, part of the whole “location-independent” trend. This will be an experiment for me. I’ll stay at least for the fall, renting an apartment and basically continuing my life as I live it here–only dancing tango later (tango starts at 9 or 10 in SF and 11 or 12 in BA!). I’ll be working on my memoir,and recreating this website with some cool new programs for readers to come–please sign up on the mailing list to stay in the loop!
This is the second big improvisational life leap for me. Well, third, if you count my move to San Francisco when I was just 23 without a job, an apartment, or knowing anyone. Just in case you think I am completely fearless, I am not. I battle my share of self-doubt and the jangled nerves of change in improvising my life freestyle. I have come to expect that my sleep gets disrupted just before and after big leaps. Fear appears to be a natural response to expansion and the unknown. This is also a big leap of courage for me because it’s my first international travel as a biopsy-diagnosed celiac. I know that Buenos Aires has good awareness around gluten and many packaged foods I can eat, but Cali does not. I’ll be packing about 80 Lara Bars and many bags of rice in my backpack to make sure I have enough safe food to eat in Colombia–and getting my inspiration from other intrepid celiac souls like Laura at the Gluten-Free Traveller.
With each leap into the unknown, I am getting better at approaching each move as a play in my life, and to somehow see each play as reversible–nothing is final, and nothing could possibly be a failure because it’s all learning about life. My current vision is to enjoy every day here in the Bay Area and then just board that plane on September 26 like it is any other day . . . and to enjoy all the ups, downs, and arounds yet to come.
Executive and Life Coach on a mission to help women connect with their bodies to live their best lives + do their best work. Author: of Quirkyalone + To-Do List. Forthcoming: WET.
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There’s a kind of love/hate relationship when it’s me taking a leap into the unknown- I tend to vascilate between imagining the absolute best that could happen and the absolute worst. But, watching someone else do it is like watching all the magic and beauty in life unfold before my eyes. So, I’m rooting for you and will revel in your leap. Go, Sasha!
Absolutely Tracy! Thanks for acknowledging the love/hate complexity in taking big leaps. My relationship to these leaps keeps evolving. They still provoke fear. This time in order to not pay attention to the fear I have decided to just march forward and almost not even think about the fact that I am going to live in another continent for a while. Just complete the to-do list and enjoy life here and then go. The odd part is that if you ask me why I am going right now I am not that clear about why because I have decided to not think about it–and just focus on my everyday life experience. You make the decision to go . . . and then you go, even with all the conflicting emotions. I do believe that taking these leaps makes life more rich and interesting and memorable. And so, anchors away! Into the anchor of our own lives.