Going with the Flo(w)…

If you’ve spent anytime on my website or instagram, or following my journey in any way, you know I’m all about joy. And not just joy, but more specifically, making space for it! Whether that means taking time to reflect on your habits, relationships, and situations and whether or not you feel aligned with them, or outsourcing a project or task so that you have more time for what lights you up.

The world is a busy place, and it’s so easy to get caught up in habits that don’t serve us, or get stuck repeating cycles and situations that don’t align with where we really want to be in this [very short] life.

As I write this it is late August, and normally at this time of year I would be crazily running around to set up a classroom and get ready to welcome ~20 4-year olds into my life. Being a pre-k teacher at the Argenziano School in Somerville, MA filled me with joy for a long time - 9 years to be exact - (or, to use a teaching term, it really “filled my bucket”😏).

And though kids will always bring me joy, and I can’t wait to have some of my own (and who knows maybe even step into a classroom again one day), I’ve evolved over the years and slowly came to the realization that spending the majority of my time in a classroom was not where I was meant to be anymore.

Your intuition is always there, giving you hints and clues that perhaps it’s time to try something new, let something go, make a decision that’s out of the norm for you.

And I don’t just mean regarding big things like leaving a career - even simple things like randomly thinking you should catch up with an old friend, and then they call you out of the blue. That’s the power of your intuition and the universe, and I could go on for days about that but I will save that for another post.

For now the point is, trusting the nudges telling you that something is no longer meant for you, or that it’s time to make a change, isn’t something that always comes naturally, but with practice it gets easier and easier to say “I’m not aligned, life is short, it’s time for something new.”

Over the past few years the soft whispers of my intuition got louder and louder, and encouraged me to try new things while I continued teaching (that’s the beauty of the nudges - you can follow your curiosities a little at a time without making a large scary decision right away). The lovely Heather Jaffe and I started a holistic health business together, I began working on freelance creative projects for entrepreneurs, I joined the Branch Out Residential Real Estate team, and I put in the effort to learn more about things that sparked joy inside me: marketing, organization, mental and physical health, and perhaps most importantly, how to go with the flow.

Meeting Sergey, my now fiance, an entrepreneur, world’s best dog dad🏆, and a “goes against the grain” kinda guy, really helped me to see that you can (and should) create the life you crave. Whether it means learning a new skill, making more time for reading, or even going in a direction you never pictured for yourself. I’m lucky to have Sergey in my life, as well as all of my supportive and amazing friends and family who constantly encourage me to follow my dreams and remind me how capable I am. I hope YOU have someone like that in your life, and if you don’t, you do now - I’m just one message away!

This is all a long winded way of saying: Evolution is good. Change is inevitable. We are not meant to do the same thing over and over just for the sake of doing it (if you’re happy with it, that’s a whole other story!). What I’m talking about here is doing the same thing over and over because it ONCE was the plan. Or it ONCE was working. Or it ONCE brought you joy.

Plans change. Nothing is set in stone. Life’s too short to not take risks. As one of my favorite authors Jen Sincero says “just being alive is risky.”

If you’re still reading this, I’m assuming and hoping that some of this resonates with you. And for those who it doesn’t, that’s fine too! But I know I wouldn’t be where I am at right now if it weren’t for all the people who have shared their story and knowledge in various ways and inspired me to learn and grow, and that’s why I want to share mine, in case it helps even one person recognize they are worthy and capable of getting uncomfortable, making space, and filling their life with every joy they can imagine.

It took me a long time, a lot of books, a lot of heartache, and a lot of getting uncomfortable to get to the point of being here: not setting up a classroom but instead setting up a tiny travel home inside a van. Not organizing materials for my new students, but instead organizing which of my belongings are going into storage and which are being donated (since not a whole lot fits inside a sprinter van😬). Ironically, as we create space for joy in our lives, we are moving in to ~80 square feet of living.

Sergey, Kona, and I are figuratively and literally Going with the Flo, as we convert our van 🚐, Florence (Flo), with the help of the amazing Pilgrim Van Builds, and go on a travel adventure with no real agenda other than to follow a dream and see where life takes us. Our van build is about half way done, and our goal is to hit the road October 1. We’ve done the insulation, installed windows, an AC, a fan, a heater, and done all the wiring for electric. Next up, floors, walls, appliances, cabinetry, and of course the part I am looking most forward to: adding all the final touches and decor. I’m no Kit Easton 😉, but I can’t wait to interior design my tiny space.

We will both be working on the road💻, Sergey managing the behind the scenes stuff for his company remotely, and me working on marketing and admin work for my real estate team, plus a few freelance projects and blogging about our adventure of course! We don’t have an exact itinerary, but we have some special places in mind (the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in New Mexico is a must-see of course!). What’s important to us is seeing as much as we can, and doing it with the biggest joy in our lives of all (and the pawject manager 😜), Kona🐾.

I’ve learned immeasurable lessons from being a teacher, and they’re all coming in handy with our van build. Organization, planning, making lists and spreadsheets, and lots of tracing, cutting, counting, and FUN - the staples of pre-k! Many (if not most) of those lessons came from the little tiny humans I taught -

If you want to get more comfortable speaking your mind, making decisions for you and only you, and going with the flow, I strongly encourage you to spend some time with a child!

I have compiled some of my favorite ways of helping children express their emotions, get in tune with their intuition, and engrain in their young minds that anything is possible for them, and though I’m not teaching anymore I am taking a page out of my own lesson plan and making an effort to be more like a preschooler:

More play, more presence, more taking things moment by moment and trusting that I am being guided and taken care of if I always choose joy, more reminding myself that I can do anything.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for an update when the build is complete and we are hitting the road. In the meantime, go do something that makes you happy, would ya ?!