I have been thinking for a couple days what I want my first post to be about. I ponder upon different topics and I couldn’t decided on one. Then yesterday while I heard my husband’s alarm go off for the third time at 3:45 am (yes, he is a “snoozer”), the idea for my first post came on. Then I debated for a while because I want this blog to be light, enjoyable, fun and exciting but I also need to have some seriousness to balance it out. So here it is! My first official blog post!

I am right now in the middle of what I call a “crisis”. I have been trying to wrap my head on the idea that I am two years away from being 40 years old. I just can’t completely understand what’s going on any more in my life. This notion of been 40 years old and be :old” has thrown me into a journey of self-discovering. It got me wondering who I am, what I want my next chapter of my life to be, and how I am going to get there. None of that is possible if I don’t accept the fact that CHANGE is inevitable. The clock keeps clicking forward and never backwards. Now there are some key questions in the air. How I’m  going to face CHANGE? What attitude I’m going to take towards the CHANGE?

So while laying in my bed bright awake at 4:00 am (which is way too early) I started to have a conversation with myself. I was trying to visualized the different approaches that I should take towards this change that is going to happened and that I can’t control it. Then I realized that I might not be able to control it but I can control how I’m going to face it and what I attitude I’m going to have towards it.

I kept watching the clock tick and now is 5:00 am (still way too early for me) and I light bulb turn on inside my head. It came to me that this not the first time I have dealt with a big change in my life. So why now all of a sudden change has become such a big deal? The very reason I started this blog is because I want to have something more to look for that gives more meaning to my life and that hopefully can provide me with some freedom to do what I want. (Jackie that is CHANGE with a different face)

Then, I started thinking about all my experiences with change and, actually, they all have been in some way a very positive experience. Don’t get me wrong I’ve had made some choices in my life (change with another face) that have let me to very bad outcomes. But over time even those bad outcomes have brought so much knowledge and learning to my life that after all, they have become into wonderful experiences.

To give you and example of a bad choice (change), my husband and I where both working at a factory in Puerto Rico and they were going to close operations and take to China. We decided that it was time to go and explore the main land USA. We bought a one way plain to ticket to land of “magic” and “where dreams come true”, Orlando, FL. My dear friend Tommy invited us to stay with him since we didn’t had anywhere else to go. Here we are in a different place, without a job, without a car, without our own place to live. The very next day we landed a job (YEAH) at…

Yep, you guessed right Disney World. We were so happy, mostly me because since I first went to Disney on vacation it was my desired to work there. So time paces by, we got a room in a motel, paying weekly rent. It wasn’t great but it was a place for just the both of us. Then we bought a car at a Buy Here Pay Here. We were doing better than when we started. Then we moved into our own apartment. We really had nothing, just an air-mattress and a television plus the stove and fridge that came with the apartment. But we were determined to succeed.

Six months after moving to Florida on December 31, 2006 we where on a plane back to Puerto Rico with our pride hurt. Feeling shameful because we couldn’t make it. It was one of those choices that had a really bad outcome. I felt like a complete failure and I can attest that my husband felt the same. Years down the road we decided to give the mainland another try but this time we used what we learn from our first experience and completely developed a plan on how we were going to do it. That horrible experience thought us that you need to have some kind of a plan, that not all can be done on a whim, and gave us the confidence we needed to start a new chapter of our lives.

There it was an example on a change that had a bad outcome turn out to be a positive, empowering and learning experience in my life. Now what?

I’ve made the determination that I am going to embrace CHANGE with open arms. To have a positive attitude towards it and to have faith that everything is going to work out for the good. That even if there are some bumps or boulders on the road of CHANGE, I can assure MYSELF that something bigger and better is coming. That they are a part of the process and are there to teach me a lesson, to make me stronger, and to show me that there are more than one ways to see and experience this Life.

I don’t have to be afraid of change, and neither do you! Let us embrace it like Earth does with the different seasons, they have a purpose, so does CHANGE!