Citizen Seven — Cory Lamb
One woman’s quest to break from convention and take her job around the world.
‘So, when are you going to come back home and settle down?’ Ah, that question and so many other variations, I hear them all the time. Most come from a place of curiosity but some with genuine apprehension. I mean, I get it. Living abroad, constantly moving, not taking up roots, working from a co-working space in Buenos Aires and not at my office are not exactly part of today’s norm. When I had my traditional office 8–6 job, along with a lovely 45-minute commute each way, I’d daydream about a different version of life; about how I could work from home or even, gasp, from a different country. Was it even possible? There’s no way my colleagues or my boss would be cool with that. Because being physically in my office desk (albeit blasting Katy Perry and thinking about anything else but, well, my job), definitely meant I was ‘working’, right? I’d think about all the extra time I’d have in my day if I wasn’t spending the 45 minutes driving to and from my office; all that laundry that could be done… making my own food…lunchtime yoga classes! And, admittedly, the thought of perusing social media without having to worry about my boss walking by sounded pretty sweet also. Ah, the possibilities seemed endless.
I tried to ease my disdain for this version of life I had chosen by accumulating many new, expensive creature comforts. I would get Starbucks every single morning before making my 45-minute commute just so I could bribe myself out of bed and not lose my job. I bought a brand-new Lexus, paid for satellite radio, ate lunch out every single day, and even seriously considered paying the $200 plus dollars a month for the Toll Road, just to make my Monday through Friday a bit more bearable. I was losing my mind and depleting my bank account at the same time. For what? To make the cadence of my routine seem livable? Because that’s what you do… Right?
I was losing my mind and depleting my bank account at the same time. For what? To make the cadence of my routine seem livable? Because that’s what you do… Right?
This is what you’re supposed to do. You know the sequence; go to college, get a job, buy a fancy car, commute to work every day, get married before 30 and have kids, watch your PTO hours accumulate every month so you could take off two weeks a year and go to Hawaii. As the years went on, I found myself seriously questioning the sustainability of this life.
Though I was nearly 30 and there was no man nor baby in sight. I had watched many friends from high school and college get married (always the bridesmaid never the bride was my life) and have kids, and while I was happy for them, I didn’t feel envy like I thought I would and was always challenging these social norms in my internal mental dialogue. Who says this is how life is meant to be, so you better follow suit? WHY do you have to this obey this so-called life-sequence in order to be happy or be a productive member of society? I just wasn’t buying it.
WHY do you have to this obey this so-called life-sequence in order to be happy or be a productive member of society? I just wasn’t buying it.
When I got the offer to work for the Private Equity company that owned my then employer, I jumped at the chance. I could work remote or join the local office of my fellow- colleagues if I so chose. I moved what I could fit in said Lexus (I was very cool, I swear) and left Orange County to live in Denver, Colorado, where I really knew no one. I learned to say hello to everyone and yes to everything. I worked from home sometimes and I’d hit up a local café to get my coffee and work a bit, or walk to yoga during lunch, did all the laundry…I did all the things!!! Guys, it was so great. I was loving this remote work life. It was shortly after that move that I learned about WYCO.
The program seemed like the perfect fit for me; combine my burgeoning remote-friendly career and my obsession with travel. And being able to be with other like-minded professionals! The adult equivalent of studying abroad in college, but with real jobs, real money and less drunken nights (that still happens sometimes, if I’m being honest). I signed up in September of 2017 and joined the Orion program in Buenos Aires for February 2018. I’ll be on with WYCO for four months.
And while I still am rejecting what ‘you’re supposed to do’ for now, I still want ALL THE THINGS. I want to travel, I want to continue being a ‘boss bitch’, I want to get married and be a mom someday, I want to travel forever, and work, work, and travel, practice Spanish, I want to do it all and have it all. And at 31 I’ve finally realized that that’s ok, and not only is it ok, but that it’s all possible! You can have it all. Life doesn’t have to be this linear sequence of events because it’s supposed to be. Screw ‘it’s supposed to’ and everyone that says you can’t do it all.
Life doesn’t have to be this linear sequence of events because it’s supposed to be. Screw ‘it’s supposed to’ and everyone that says you can’t do it all.
It’s important to continue to challenge the WHY of life, so next time you find yourself telling a friend in my shoes ‘I’m so jealous of your life!’, make it YOUR life! I know its scary but it’ll be worth it, I promise. And if you feel so inclined, please join me in Brazil next month, I hear their Caipirinha’s are killer.
Citizen Seven is a series written by WYCO members about their experience as citizens of the world. (Seven is symbolic of the world — seven continents).
