Gretchen posted on October 13, 2014
Well, we have more big news. We've been so busy the last two months, I haven't had time to post. Many of you have heard, but for those of you who haven't, I was offered a new position with Enterprise Rent A Car, which I accepted. The new position required that we move to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
My last day at Melia was August 29. After eight years with the company and a lot of ups and downs, leaving was definitely anti-climactic. There have been moments when I loved my job and moments when I was ready to walk out the door, but when I left everything felt so rushed. There were a lot of changes going on at the time: a major corporate reorganization and changes within my own team, making it even harder to leave because I was the most senior person on the team (even more than my boss), and I felt like they needed me. But in the end, the new job offer was too good to turn down.
The last few weeks have been so hectic. In mid-September, Adam and I traveled to Fort Lauderdale for a week to look for a house, car, daycare, etc. We made some headway but didn't nail down anything concrete. The end of September was full of wrapping up loose ends, and the pack and move. Margie came down one last time to help out while we took care of everything. We had a goodbye party at La Tranquita a few days before we left, and my coworkers came over to say goodbye as well. We sold the car the day before we left! The last two days we stayed with Lucy and Eric.
In spite of all the craziness, we really tried to take advantage of our last few weeks in Cancun, and in Mexico. It's been an eight-year adventure which we never expected. When Melia offered me the job and we moved to Mexico City in 2006, we never thought about how long we would stay; we just thought we'd stay until we were ready to leave. And we were never ready to leave. We loved the wild crazy energy of Mexico City, the history and culture of thousands of years mixed with incredibly modern art and architecture, the coolest restaurants with the best food we've ever had, all along with 23 million other people. The city just exudes energy. After four years we were ready to try something new, and moved to Cancun. Cancun was a complete 180 from Mexico City. If Mexico City was a dry, cool, urban climate in the mountains, Cancun was a hot, humid, suburban environment on the beach. Life in Cancun is laid-back. The beaches are the most beautiful that I've ever seen, an electric turquoise blue water against the white sand. The people are a mix of every state in Mexico, plus citizens of dozens of other countries who have made Cancun their home. We got to experience the Mayan culture and history firsthand. Most importantly, Cancun is where we got married and had our son.
Leaving Cancun was one of the most difficult things we've had to do. We love Mexico and honestly, were not ready to leave. I really think we could have stayed there forever. But sometimes in life, you have to take opportunities that come your way, even if the choice is very difficult. In the long term, we know that this is best for our family and our future. We are so grateful for our time in Mexico and will always cherish the country with very fond memories. And don't think that this is the end for us there, we will definitely be back to live, in retirement at the latest and maybe even before, who knows what surprises life holds?
So that's it! We're here in Fort Lauderdale, adjusting day by day. I'll post later with more details about our move.