Journal #19: Let’s Get Real

This is from a journal written on January 22, 2022, in Cartagena, Colombia.

All right. Time to get real. This week was rough with work.

Let me preface by saying that I have a fantastic job that I love. My days are typically 50% or less in meetings, and the rest of the time I spend designing, meeting with my design team, and chatting with my developers. It’s a low-stress, high-reward job. So, I’m not complaining.

BUT…

Because I’m not used to having my days filled end-to-end with meetings, it can drain the hell out of me when a day like that does come along. And this week, every day was one of those days.

It’s not even that anything terrible happened at work. My project is going great, and my internal team is doing well. But again, that many meetings for an entire week were honestly super exhausting for me.

And Brett had the same kind of week.

Because of this, we didn’t leave Selina at all. We had zero opportunities to explore or eat out, which kind of sucked for our first week in this beautiful city.

Now I must add that we were developing our big ideas on our off hours and breaks. Brett was calling CEOs and leaders in the digital nomad space and sending out a survey to test the desirability of this kind of service amongst college kids. I was designing my website and writing up my first couple blog posts.

Hm, weird, Tay. You’re in meetings all day exerting energy, and then instead of relaxing and unwinding, you’re on to the next project.

Yep, guilty.

But I couldn’t help it! I’m so excited for my blog and the opportunity to share my story past the polished world of Instagram. And that excitement gave me a little more energy to do more with my day. Sue me!

Now you’re probably thinking, Wait, weren’t you the one complaining about being exhausted?

Ok, sorry. Yes. My brain is a little scrambled from the week (and all the margs I consumed last night). I’m trying to say this: This lifestyle isn’t always glamorous. Although I post those idyllic pics of me effortlessly working in cool places, I still have real-ass workweeks.

The beauty of this lifestyle comes in when I’m able to walk out and be in a dope place once I log off. And that's the difference.

A rooftop chill sesh as the sun dips beyond the Caribbean horizon? Yeah, that’ll help me forget why my brain is fried.