An Interesting Black Life in 5 Minutes

I'm an American expat, but I wasn't always one. I was born and raised in north Philadelphia. Most of my adolescence was rooted in a neighborhood called Swampoodle. If you thought for a moment about that name, you'd be right if you assumed it was a bad neighborhood.

The name itself doesn't give a good image. Any decent neighborhood would have a better name or at least a neutral name. What are the first two words that come to mind from Swampoodle? Swamp and poodle. In other words, a dirty dog.

During high school, I moved to the Logan neighborhood. Most of my best childhood memories were there. A year later, I started working at Dunkin Donuts. Suddenly, I became the neighborhood celebrity. So, what exactly made me popular? I was working at Dunkin Donuts and neighbors were expecting me to give them free donuts, coffee, or whatever else they wanted.

I didn't mind to give freebies to my real friends because I had to trash all of those baked goods every night. I hated to see so much food land in the dumpster. If every Dunkin Donuts redirected their donuts and bagels from the dumpster to the homeless, I'm sure it would have prevented thousands of deaths from starvation. I always tried to give a dozen of donuts to the homeless, whenever possible.

With a few exceptions, the rest of those donuts and bagels were unhealthy, but when you're starving, anything helps. I was grateful to work at Dunkin Donuts because it was a steady paycheck and free breakfast every morning. While I enjoyed working at Dunkin Donuts, I wasn't interested in starting a career there. So, after high school, I resigned and attended college.

My first year of college was unsuccessful. I think it would've been best if I did a gap year first. Eventually, I took some courses at a community college and finished with an associate's degree in automotive technology. At that time, I was excited by the automotive industry, but I wasn't excited by climbing the corporate ladder. So, I searched for vocational programs that I could study from home.

 I thought studying holistic health would be interesting since I already completed weekend training with the herbal company, Nature's Sunshine, during that same year. At that time, I really loved their products and wanted to make a part-time income, but I wasn't successful. I assumed that I'd be more successful if I had more than a weekend training. So, I enrolled in the Academy of Natural Health Sciences.

I was expecting to finish the master herbalist program in six to twelve months, but life got in the way. I entertained some distractions because it was my choice. Although, there were other distractions that required my attention. From the time that I started the vocational program until the time I finished it, I did a lot of interesting things in those twelve years.

I completed a Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate program, where I used it to teach business executives at Coca-Cola in Ecuador, among other temporary assignments. I moved to California to work for an international non-profit organization and then to New Hampshire to work for a music conservatory.

Then, I moved to Texas to start my writing career. I believed it was a better place to be a writer. I didn't have any facts to prove it, but I secured a book publishing deal after living there for a year and a half. The acquisitions editor visited Houston. I was there. We talked. A week later, I had a book publishing contract.

A year later, my book was released and it became the #1 eBook on the Amazon U.S. website. The eBook also became #1 on Amazon and other bookselling websites in other countries, including Mexico and Spain. Out of curiosity, I moved to Mexico.

After comparing the advantages and disadvantages between my native country and my newly adopted country, I realized Mexico would be better for me in the long term. It's not far from home and I save a lot of money, while living a similar U.S. lifestyle. 

I can include countless benefits, but that's not the intention of this post. Perhaps, that'll be the next one!