Hola! My name is Pamela and I have been wandering around, with varying degrees of success, since July 2022. I’m a mom to 3 amazing adults. They are definitely the best things I have ever ‘made from scratch’ (thanks Grey’s Anatomy for the best mom phrase ever). I did such a great job raising them that they all became fiercely independent, moved away and started their own lives. Independent adults – one of those lofty parenting goals that one hopes for but then it doesn’t always feel great when you achieve it. I used to teach school and tap dance too – I loved both very much and honestly I was pretty good at teaching children how to do things. But then I turned 50 and I wanted to do do something new.
Truthfully I wanted to be someone new. When I was a teenager, I thought I would be really brave, independent and glamorous, and travel to far off and exciting places. But then one day, I was 5o years old and I looked in the mirror and thought “Huh?” I really did love my jobs but somehow I didn’t love my life. While I was very independent and often brave, I was also pretty boring and definitely not glamorous or travelling to exciting places. I was not sure who I wanted to be or what I wanted to do, but I just knew “not this” anymore. So I sold my condo and most of my belongings, I found some young and wonderful teachers to take over my tap classes, I joined a pet-sitting agency and signed up for a couple of volunteer experiences in Central America and Africa.
I have been “on the road” now for 16 months. I still have no idea what I want to do or where I want to land but I am slowly discovering who I am, outside of being a mom and teacher. One thing I have discovered is that I am not, nor will I ever be, glamorous. Most of it has been exciting and fun, some of it has been scary, some of it has been completely perspective-shifting and life-changing, and every once in a while it has just been weird and a little lonely. Anyways, I started teaching English online in May as a way to facilitate more travel and someone said “Oh, cool, you’re a digital nomad now.’ I laughed and laughed and then laughed some more (one day I will tell the story of my painful learning of how SIM cards work and how bad I am at online banking from different countries) and then I said, “I am the furthest thing from a digital nomad. In fact, I’m like a bumbling, unexperienced analog nomad.” (insert cymbal crash here).
So in continuing on my quest to be brave and try new things, like learning Spanish, salsa dancing and hiking dormant volcanos, I have spent approximately one thousand hours (I’m not joking, I am really not a digital person) learning how to make a website and a blog. So, welcome to The Analog Nomad (we got fun and games…) I hope to share some of my travel stories, useful things that I have learned along the way, things about people and places and sometimes just about life. Also I think I take really cool pictures that you might like. And maybe hopefully, one of my stories may help someone decide to make a bold move themselves, to learn something new, try a new hobby or go someplace they never dreamed that they could… someplace that takes your breath away and makes you feel full of love and wonder. Like I said, I still don’t know what I want to do or where I will land but I am really glad I took the leap.
“She took a leap and built wings on the way down” ~ Nitya Prakash
