I have come a long way... Thank you to those who helped me along the way.

I had given away everything I owned, quit my 9-5, abandoned my car on the side of the road and left my apartment empty with the keys on the counter like I was checking out of a hotel.  I had checked out of my life… this was not standard procedure for me; I’m a very responsible person. 

I had often read about other people who had and checked out, checking it to a care facility and I always thought, I have way too much to do to get treatment. How do these people find time and or money to do this?  The first time I tried to read Eat, Pray, Love by Liz Gilbert for example I had to put the book down because I was so irritated by this woman’s whining.  Now of course, the book and the movie are like the mantra to my life!

In fact, the first time my friend said, “quit your job and move to Costa Rica” I thought, I can’t quit my job, I have responsibilities!  Of course we all know how that story ended… and if you’re just tuning in, that’s right; I quit my job and was living in Costa Rica 27 days later.

I was not completely without aim though.  I was enrolled in Massage School and had an exit strategy… and then... I met a boy, and well, out the window with my original plans.  I did finish school.  And then settled into a surf village and sank my exit strategy into building a day spa for tourists.   

It was lovely really, until I woke one day and realized that I was in a different Julia Roberts movie and felt the compelling need to fake my own death to escape it.   I didn’t do anything quite as drastic but instead made up some story of helping a friend start up her spa and that I would be back in a week, I never went back.  All I had was what I had packed for the week and enough money to get me to the air port on a bus.  After a tearful call to Delta I was able to reinstate my “original plan” ticket back to the states where I was greeted by a friend with a hug and a spare bedroom.

So there I was, in a town I had visited once but was essentially a stranger to with no money and a duffle bag of some clothes that might have been suitable for a surf village but were useless to me here….

That was October of 2012.  It is now February of 2014, I just bought a yoga studio, I have come a long way from having everything I own fit in a carry on with a few dollars in foreign money to my name, and I would just like to say Thank you.  Thank you to the friend who helped me leave, Thank you to the friend who helped me arrive, Thank you to the friend who convinced me to go in the first place, Thank you to the friend who gave me this opportunity and Thank you to the teachers who make up my staff and the students who make up my customer base, to all of you, Jai Dee belongs to you, I just work here.