Leaving Boston

One morning I woke up and that was it, I was done. It was just too much. My job, my life, it was time. I had to leave but I had built a community in Boston. The years I spent there involved great friends and great memories. Road races, club nights, museums, concerts, camping, bar crawls, miles of walking the city, Sunday martinis, countless jobs, Jamaica Plain, the South End, dinner parties, bday celebrations, travelling all over from Philly, NYC, TX, DC, Charleston, CA, to London, Rome, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Nassau, and Cabo. When friends became family and a home was built, my life became full and priceless. But still, something was not right. My most current job of 2.5 years had caused me to become someone I couldn't recognize and there was no way to diassociate that experience from my life in Boston. So I gave my notice and decided to take a life-timeout. I needed to get back to my happy place and the Bahamas was it.

I used to work in the Bahamas on and off from 2002 - 2005 in the student leisure market. I started as an on-site rep for a tour operator and ended as the on-site controller. When I booked my college senior spring break trip with STS Travel in 2002, I met a man named Eddie Davis. He helped me organize my trip and in our discussions I got a job as an on-site rep in Nassau, the program he ran. I knew nothing about Nassau and the Bahamas, but I was excited to go. And that was the beginning of my love for this place.

The Bahamas has an interesting history. The original inhabitants were an Indian tribe called the Lucayans from current day Peru. When Colombus landed on San Salvador (one of the Bahamian islands) he brought slavery and disease. This completely eliminated the tribe. To the point, where there isn't a single living Lucayan descendent in the Bahamas. When the plantations started, slaves were brought over from Africa and indentured servants from India and China. When the British learned that the land was not arable they left the island abandoning the slaves and servants. Some skilled merchants and owners chose to stay, so the current population consists of black and white bahamians, with black being the larger percentage. With a history like this, it is remarkable that the ecomony has developed the way it has. It is a second world country with three main industries: tourism, fishing, and banking. And continues to grow everyday. Once run by England, Bahamian architecture, government, education, language, and the general culture all have British influence. General greeting on the island is good morning/afternoon/evening. You address elders as Ms./Mr. last name. It is a strong Christian country, where cursing is unacceptable, citizens cannot gamble, and everything shuts down on Sundays, to name a few. The island infuence creates a people that are friendly, warm, respectful, laid back, and open. It is this friendly culture that I love: where strangers wave hello, you can safely hitch rides, and on the outer islands I could/and have left my wallet sitting on a store counter all day, and it would/was still there, untouched, when I got back. I feel safe, happy, warm, and relaxed when I am there. And this is why I can't get enough.

So I knew that for my timeout the Bahamas is where I needed to be. I needed sun, beach, a friendly culture and a lot of me-time. So I told Eddie I was quitting and going back and he was suprised that it took me this long. He couldn't staff me at STS, but told me that an associate needed a controller for his company and had coincidentally called him asking if it was ok to offer me a position with him. And there it was. I was going back to the Bahamas at the end of Feb as the controller for Studentcity.com.

So I finished my job as best as I could, packed up my life, had a goodbye party and got on a plane. Bahamas here I come.