The Beginning

I recently moved to Pachuca, Hidalgo, in Mexico to work as an English teacher. I’ve been here for about 4 months now and I’ve pretty much gotten over the craziness of simultaneously adjusting to a new country and a new career, so I thought that now would be a good point to begin chronicling my experiences. I’ll probably have to do some back-tracking to cover all the adventures that have gone un-recorded, but it will be worth it.

I’ll start by addressing a question a lot of my students ask me: Why did you come to Mexico? Well, like most things, that’s complicated. To start with, I’ve always wanted to travel. I felt like my life would be somewhat un-lived if I just stayed in North Carolina for all of it. I crave adventure and discovery and I’m a very curious person. I feel that the world is a very big place full of many interesting people and it would be a shame not to go out and look around some. I also had a very good experience when I studied in Queretaro, Mexico for a semester during my junior year of college. I loved Mexico but I felt like I missed out on part of the experience, because I went with my American boyfriend and hung out with other foreign exchange students. In my past few years in the US, I have worked with a lot of Mexicans and really gotten to know them. I had learned to read and write Spanish in college but had never really gotten comfortable speaking it. Around my co-workers I grew confident in the language and began to really enjoy their culture. These are all contributing factors to my decision to move to Mexico and teach.

But, if we’re being honest (and I always am), the biggest reason would be that I just wasn’t happy in the United States. I tried a couple different lines of work and tried to find my place, but something was always missing. I don’t like the life-style there – it’s more rushed in general. People are generally more formal, and you’re supposed to be more independent. A lot of value is placed on what degree you have and what job you work. Among people my age there seems to be a race to secure a good job, get married, buy a house, and start a family. People follow the formula but I feel like they don’t really experience life. I also feel that too much value is placed on material goods.

In Mexico I saw a country where people are more connected to each other and pay more attention to their human side. Personal relationships are more important than business. This is a very collective society, so you never have to be alone. A lot of people are not very fortunate financially, so as a culture they have learned to have fun and be happy without a lot of material goods. I feel that having everything you need at the moment you need it, like in the US, kind of removes you from the human experience. You don’t have to work very hard for anything. You take a lot for granted because it’s always been there. You develop high standards and it’s harder to be happy. The US is clean, organized, and safe… and yet something was missing for me. Mexico is loud, colorful, dirty, crazy, disorganized…. And REAL.

So far, so good. I’ve been the happiest these past 4 months that I have been in a long time J