#laminga

While teaching in Guatemala City, I was offered my dream job: to teach Spanish at my former high school. I attended a private, Catholic, military high school in Washington, DC. This was a school that had produced some of the most notable businessmen, had recruited athletes who would go on to be drafted into the NBA and the NFL, and had given me the best education I could ask for. Many of my friends today were made in those hallways. Needless to say, I felt enthralled. 

After four months as a long-term substitute, I had completely fallen in love with my "angelitos", met an incredible woman who became one of my closest friends, and was offered a full-time position for next year. In addition to the resume boost, I would be earning an excellent salary (for teachers). I declined. Why?

27 is a funny age; you aren´t young enough to carelessly burn through your savings and you aren´t old enough to be seriously worried about your 401K and mortgage. Or maybe some people are. But this was my case. I did not want to live in the DC area (a discussion for another time) nor did I agree with a lot of the decisions that were made while working at this school. Let me state here and now that I will always be indebted to this school and the amazing opportunity it gave me. However, it was not the job for me. 

Therefore, I decided to pick up my things and move to a new country for the fourth time in three years. This time I moved to Colombia to teach with SENA, a government-funded program aiming to increase English proficiency for Colombians. My experiences over the last two weeks have been both positive and negative, but I will cherish the many conversations with my co-teachers. Many of them expressed the same feeling of being caught between the nomadic life and the white-picket-fence-and-2.5-kids lifestyle. We are all connected through our decisions and lack of decisions...