So let’s rewind only 2.5 years ago…

What my life looked like

I was living the corporate life, I had a good position as Communications and Marketing Manager for a mid-sized B2B IT Services company, near Paris in France.
A nice house in the countryside around Paris, a loving family nearby, old time friends.
For all intents and purposes I should have been able to call myself happy.
But I was not; something was missing, and has been for a long time.

I had a job in a company I cared deeply for, having seen it grow from 20 employees to around 250, but I was more and more at odds with the internal politics.
I had money, enough to get me almost anything I wanted.

My job was my life and it was not going anywhere.

What has started as a great adventure when I was 25 has turned out quite empty.
Although I had tried during the years to model my job on what I liked, going from a sales function to communications, then communications and marketing, it was not my company so there was only so much I could decide on where I thought it should go.
At some point, the top management and myself grew apart. We were not on the same page anymore and I went from an enthusiastic, try-it-all person to a keep-to-myself, almost recluse one.

And that is pretty unfortunate for somebody working in communications and marketing…

I was having a hard time getting up in the morning to go to work. I was irritable to some of my coworkers, had little patience and I was not making the efforts needed by my job. I then realized I wouldn’t be able to go on like this forever, but I have to admit I was pretty scared of changing my life.

You see, I have been working for that company for almost 20 years. Aside from college projects and summer jobs, it was really the only company I have ever worked for. And I wasn’t sure my “skills” were really marketable in any other company, because they were so tailored to the needs of that specific company.

So yes I was scared to go out there and quite possibly be rejected.

I was also scared to start anew, with new coworkers, a new company culture I knew nothing about, etc.

Basically I was very good at listing all the reasons why it was a good idea not to change.
But somehow I knew it had to change and I could not go on like that forever.

Then life kind of helped me made the decision. And gave me a hard push.
I wish life had found another way to tell me it was time but then I guessed it had sent me a lot of signals along the way and I just haven’t listened or acknowledged those signals.
So life, or fate, however you wish to call it, decided to take it to the next level.

The tipping point

My mom who had been battling cancer for 5 years passed away.
Upon reflection, and setting aside the whole ‘fate’ thing, I guess she was really the one tying me up to that old life. She never quite knew how much I resented my life, mainly, I think, because I was doing a pretty good job at covering it up.

I helped organize the funerals, managed to convince my boss that I needed time to think things through and that we would all be better off if I could work remotely. And I did just that for about a month.

Having thought long and hard about my life (no escape this time), I took that (gigantic for me) step forward and announced that I was going to take a one-year leave of absence.
I spent the next 3 months tying up loose ends, explaining to my family and friends what I was doing and why. I went to work every day, put everything in order if they ever wanted to hire anybody in the interval, trained some people on parts of my job, and left the company.

I spent about a month with my dad, booked a ticket to Atlanta, GA and left my home country with one suitcase and a handbag.

My new life

I ended up in Virginia near Roanoke, where my partner is from, in his little house in the woods.

Quite a change from the hectic Parisian life, let me tell you!

But obviously what I needed because I have no plans to going back.

I am sparing you the boring details of my journey with immigration, which lasted until May 2017 when I finally received my Permanent Resident Permit (the famous Green Card).

That meant I could now work if I wanted to!

Because the corporate life was the only one I have ever known after my student years, I tried to go back to it.

But the circumstances are vastly different.

I live in a fairly rural area, although the nearest big(gish) town is pretty close by. And there are not too many offers for what I like, which is Communications and Marketing.
My partner works shift from 3pm to sometimes 3 or 4 am, when things go wrong. So having a regular 9 to 5 job would clash a lot with his own schedule.
We also rescued a fur princess named Whiskey who cannot stand being left on her own, and I mean, she is fine if you leave her in her kennel for one hour… But after that, all bets are off. One day we went to a trade-show downtown and stayed there for about 4 hours. When we came back we discovered that she has tried to break free from the kennel, bending the door by trying to get under it, and hurting her nose in the process, poor thing.
So leaving her for a prolonged period of time is out of the question, and that doesn’t help with a regular 9-5 job…

Leaving the house, with my partner still asleep, coming back home to him gone to work, then going to bed before he’s back because I have to be up at 6 or 7 and he won’t be up until later… That doesn’t sound at all like the life I want after all those years of working 10+ hours a day, not including commuting.

What I want for us is as much time together as possible. I do not want us to have regrets in a few years.

But I also want not to have to worry about finances, and while my salary was ok back in France and I put some money aside as savings, I can’t be spending it to help buy groceries or pay the phone bill.
That money has to be put aside in case of harder times.
And while we are pretty frugal, one salary is not quite enough to make ends meet.

Finally, even though I am interested in a lot of things and can take up all kinds of new hobbies (believe me, I took up quite a bit since I’ve been here), I want to feel like I am contributing to this household more than by cooking dinners, cleaning the house (which got significantly harder after we got Whiskey lol, she’s so scared of the vacuum) or knitting scarves and crochet bags.

As I said I did try to go back to the corporate world. I updated my resume, got myself on Indeed, Ziprecruiter, Linkedin, etc.
But with no real result.
Of course I could always go back to my first job and be a sales person. There is no shortage of offers on that. But I honestly didn’t really enjoy it back then, so there is very little chance that I would enjoy it more now.

Towards a freelance way of life

Enter Facebook and one sponsored post about freelance writing.
Because I clicked on it to see what it was about, I am now inundated by similar posts (obviously… thank you Facebook algorithm).
Several posts later and a lot of thinking/introspection (what do I want out of this life, is this for me, what if I suck at this, how will I even make money out of this, where am I going to find clients, ah damn, this is so difficult, let’s watch TV instead)…
Here I am, trying my hand at blogging and launching a freelance writing business!
This is certainly a very exciting prospect for me, I hope you will find it entertaining to follow me on this journey!

And maybe it will give some of you ideas of how to change your life for the best.