Are you sitting at your desk right now dreaming of being somewhere else or wishing you had your dream job? Or thinking to yourself how much you hated getting out of bed this morning going to work? Well, I was you about a year ago. Let me tell you how it all changed for me.
After leaving my husband in early 2016 I met someone online who didn’t hold me back from chasing my dreams. Who taught me to take chances and risks for things I want out of life. So, after knowing him for two weeks (yes, your read that right) I agreed to take a chance and go to a little island off the coast of Honduras called Utila with him. Now here in lies a problem – I did not have a passport and only had a short time to obtain one. I went online and checked out different express passport services all the while thinking they were a little sketch but, eventually settled on one. I completed the paperwork and got the pictured needed, overnighted it all in on Monday morning praying I would receive a passport back by Friday. The next day I checked numerous times to ensure the required documents made it to their destination and you guessed it once I knew they arrived I began calling. It was a long 3 days and I feel sorry for the person I had direct contact with but, Thursday afternoon I received the email I had been waiting for all week – The UPS tracking number for my passport that was to be delivered the next day by 10 am. I had already arranged a leave from work for 30 days. I was set to go and headed of to Utila with my online guy.
Friday we flew from Charlotte to Houston in his private plane and to say that wasn’t an experience in of its self would be wrong. How many people can say they have flown this way before? After this trip its going to be hard to step foot on a commercial plane. This trip we followed the Mississippi River most of the way. When we were above the clouds to look down and see nothing but, soft fluffy clouds with the sun shinning in on them was beautiful. We arrived to Houston just before the sun was setting which was nothing short of one of the best scenes I could ever imagine. Once we landed I had decided that plane will never go up without me in it again. Saturday we caught a commercial flight to Roatan the flight was nothing special like I already said. However I received my FIRST STAMP in my new passport!
We had only made arrangements to get this far and decided we would make it an adventure when we got to Roatan because there were only a couple ways to make it to Utila from there – chartered boat, Ferry (aka vomit comet) or private plane. Thankfully he knew Spanish and was able to charter us a plane however, I sat there on our bags watching him work the details out thinking to myself what have I just got myself into? He comes back to me and says they are going to take our bags and they have arranged a car for us to go get lunch. I had to straight up ask him at this point – Did you just make some sort of drug deal? He laughed, and said “No, I got us lunch and a private plane”.
Now, let me mention I am not someone who usually tries new things when it comes to food and I had tried researching what type of food was on Utila aside from the obvious seafood as I don’t like seafood. Come to find out a search was not very useful as I found very little information and just figured I would starve to death. Well, come to find out seafood is actually pretty good and they had some of the freshest fruits and vegetables.
During the 30 days I was there I followed my passion I had always had of being in the water and learned to dive. I obtained my open water, advanced open water and nitrox PADI Certifications. Taking my first breath underwater was a little scary but, the calmness of everything around you makes it magical. It was moments I experienced like this that made me remember what it was like to be me again. Not a Mother, not a Wife, not an Accountant, but, ME! I met some of the most mazing people – someone was always coming or going and they all had different stories to tell. The month flew by and it was time for me to say good bye to everyone I had met on the island and head back home to reality. I cried the entire 12 hours home.
So, you’re wondering what happen to my dream job aren’t you? Well, I lasted a week at home before I booked a return ticket to Utila. Walking out of the office at 5:30 that Friday afternoon I had never in my life felt more free. I thought I would be a huge wreck. How am I going to pay all my bills and what about insurance and this and that – I wasn’t. I was finally free of the corporate world and what I had always been taught I had to do.
Once I arrived back in Utila my online guy welcomed me back with open arms along with everyone I had said goodbye to a week prior. I completed my rescue course and went on and then completed Dive Master. Neither of which is a small feat in life. I completed the rescue course in 3 days. To think I learned how to save someone who is drowning. A person who is unresponsive underwater not to mention being able to find someone who was lost underwater. I knocked out Dive Master in 14 days which is normally a 30 day course. This required me to be on boats and in the water from sun up to sun down everyday. However, watching others take their first breath underwater is nothing short of a great experience. Knowing I can help others obtain the dream I had just 2 months prior. Now, I have the option to teach other how amazing that underwater world really is. What I didn’t realize was happening was I had learned so much about myself in those three months that I wanted to continue my journey onto other places and see and experience things I had only read about in books or heard stories of from others.
Over the past year I have only added a couple more stamps to my passport but, I promise the things I am seeing and experiencing are stories you want to hear about. Living the news as it happens as opposed to listening to it. Today for example, the Russian warship that is setting out to destroy the US Navy Destroyers that launched the airstrike on Syria passed by us in the Bosphorus strait as we were sitting in the plaza having lunch. So, I invite you to go on this journey with me as I am currently in Istanbul with so much I want to share and hopefully encourage others to do the same as me. Travel the world and see it for what it really is – AMAZING!
Now, this journey isn’t free so I have created a site on Patreon.com/TrappedInNeverland in order to help contribute to this journey while I will post a lot on here there will be more posted on Patreon.com/TrappedInNeverland You also, receive rewards for following me on my journey so its a win for all of us.