Well. I was right. This is going to be more challenging than I thought. Finding the time and making it a priority will be the biggest struggle of my new blogging career. Let me answer the question that you have all been waiting for. Or at least the question that I’ve been asked the most since crossing the border.
What made you move to Mexico? If you’ve ever spent a winter in Saskatchewan, Canada you will already know the answer to that. I was born in Edmonton, Alberta and we moved to Eyebrow, Saskatchewan when I was 5. From 1st grade through to 12th I attended the same school. We had 11 people in our graduating class and I rode the same bus, with the same bus driver (Hardy – he was the best) for my entire 12 years of public education. You would have thought that being the first bus to arrive for 12 consecutive years would have instilled a greater sense of urgency regarding punctuality. It hasn’t – which is still one of my biggest struggles to this day.
Eyebrow (http://www.villageofeyebrow.com) had approximately 300 people when we lived there. There was a bank, school, grocery store, post office, grain elevators, and I think a gas station with a restaurant if I remember correctly. No – we did not have a traffic light. We grew up about 15 miles out of town on a farm, close to my Grandma and Grandpa where my Dad was raised. We had a grain farm and worked outside from March until September. Once hockey season started, we moved from the seat of the Massey 1800 to the cold bench of the hockey arena.
Never forget where you came from and never take your eyes off where you’re heading.
It was a great life. Not an easy one, and now as a business owner I often wonder how my parents did it. They worked together raising three kids and crop after crop. I think that the three kids turned out alright and the crops – well – as the saying goes in farming “you win some you lose some”. When we were young – we thought we had it all. We started working for a dollar an hour and we had it made in the shade. We cut grass, planted trees, dug potatoes, shelled peas, husked corn, and rototilled the garden. You name it – we did it. As we got a bit older, we learned how to drive everything. Cars, trucks, tractors, combines, grain trucks, swathers…the list goes on.
That’s also when our sense of responsibility set in and our work ethic was formed. I was googling some quotes related to farming and found one that was true when I was 12, and still to this day. “Farmers don’t quit when the sun goes down. They work until the job gets done.” We learned it way back when we witnessed it from our parents, and we still hold true to that today. I think that you could probably classify everyone in my family as a workaholic. Finding a balance is difficult – and one thing that I am striving for. Balance. It doesn’t happen on its own, or by accident.
After high school, I moved to Edmonton and went to a year of college with the plan on attending university and completing my degree in Education. I was accepted and was scheduled to start the next fall. I kind of wasn’t feeling it, and decided to take a year off to work. That one year turned to thirty, and I’m still working. I spent 5 years in Edmonton and worked as a retail manager for LensCrafters, where I was certified as a licensed optician. Shoveling my 1969 Mustang out of the snow got old really fast. That and the fact the heater didn’t work after it was -15 degrees was not a good combo. She was my first car and my first love. However, I had to upgrade to something a little more reliable. My little brother managed to take her off my hands and eventually, she had to retire.
It was with LensCrafters that I was able to transfer to Vancouver. I packed up my little Mazda and headed to the west coast. Bright lights, big city. It was while living in Vancouver that I took my first trip to Cabo with some girlfriends. Our first night at Squid Roe was like something I’d never experienced. I was instantly hooked on Cabo and this completely foreign way of life. We ended up coming down about 6 times over the next 2 years. Every time loving it more and more. The people, the beach, the smell of the air when you get off the plane.
It was just amazing to me how someone would recognize us from one stay to the next, let alone remember our names. It was quickly becoming apparent that this is where I needed to be. At least give it a whirl – what did I have to lose? I could always go back. Young, crazy, and perhaps a little bit reckless (at least according to my mom) I threw caution into the wind and made the move. I came down with another one of my friends that also had the Cabo bug.
One rainy day in December 1999, we packed up our 1985 Grand Marquis (that my parents generously provided – bondo and all) so that we could have a clunker and fit in with everyone else here. We almost made the trip without incident. We did have lack of brakes in Oregon, and some smoke and a call to the LAFD in Los Angeles – but other than that smooth sailing. We arrived on December 21 and I can honestly say that every time I drive into town from the north at dusk, I see the Cabo lights and am reminded of that night. It was exciting, relieving, and terrifying all at the same moment. My life was about to change and I had no idea what to expect. But I knew it was going to be an adventure!
Saludos!
~ Michelle