One Step Back, Me & Emancipation

What I am about to tell you will come as a surprise. It may shock some and envy others. However you interpret, I want to make it clear this has been a very difficult decision. I have dreamt of traveling the world for a very long time. Well now I can, but before we get there, let’s start from the beginning.

Photo by siliconchris - http://www.flickr.com/photos/madram/453674989/sizes/o/

Growing up as I child in São Paulo, Brazil, I was part of a very loving but humble family. They managed to provide for my younger brother and I but at times with great difficulty. I immensely appreciate everything they have done for me. My dad was often unemployed for long stretches of time, sometimes even over a year. Although a very competent, and trustworthy man, Brazil’s economy in the 80’s and 90’s was not very favorable.

We did what we could, they put me thru school and made sure I was well taken care of. I am forever grateful.

In 1998 my family decided they’ve had enough hardship and it was time to fight a new battle. They borrowed money from family members and purchased tickets to a flight to Miami, Florida. We arrived in Florida a day after Christmas with nothing but our suitcases. My dad had come a couple months before and rented an apartment in Sunrise, Florida. He had also found a job in the construction industry. This was no glamorous job, he carried steel beams for a living; at least he had a job. We left everything behind, family, friends, our country, what we knew in pursuit of happiness.

I was about fourteen years old. I remember my first day in high school, didn’t know a single word of english. During my English 101 class we were assigned to read Shakespeare and pick out an uncommon word to write on the board. As you can imagine, this was a problem for me. Every word looked uncommon. Miss Daisy was not about to let me skip it this assignment, regardless if I read english or not. My plan was to pick the longest word I could find. On the way back from the board I heard laughter (those freshmen’ can be mean). I found out then that the word “apologize” was not that uncommon after all.

For the first nine months I rarely spoke to anyone. I guess my brain was adapting, learning and storing as much information as it possible could. I remember that one morning, in piano class it just clicked. At that point I understood the day-to-day conversations but that morning I remember speaking my first couple of sentences. It was almost like a switch in my brain went on. From then on I started gaining confidence, practicing as much as I could. Soon enough english began to flow fluently.

Contrary to my assumptions, learning the language was a small challenge. We faced many more challenges as a family. During difficult times I questioned the decision to move to the United States. My brother who was 8 at this point was adapting quite well, the language came to him easily and he was doing well in school. My dad eventually found a less physically punishing job. Instead of steel beans he was now working with wood framing, still in the construction business.

Fast forward about a year and a half, my parents wen’t back to Brazil with my brother. The main reason for the return home was my mom’s depression problems. I was just about 16 years old and decided to stay. I had left everything behind once and was not about to do it again. I am glad my parents trusted me enough to leave me behind. At this point I was on my own. I got a job working as a “do-boy” for an insurance company’s IT department. I cleaned things, picked up lunch, organized filing cabinets, you name it. I got the job thru someone my mom worked for, who was at the time the owner of the company. Alvin was one of the most generous man I have met to date. He sadly passed away recently on my 25th birthday.

The office was close to my high school and I could walk there after class. I can honestly say this was the moment my life started to change. A couple months into my new job I started to get closer and closer to the software development department. My boss at the time saw my interest and gave me a change to spend some time learning to program. The insurance system was built in C++ and after about 6 months of throw away work I begin to help them with trivial system bugs. Since then I have worked with about 4 companies as a junior programer,  senior developer, lead software developer and most recently managing a substantial development department. 

Why am I telling you this?

Growing up, I was never able to travel much. I don’t remember much but one of my first trips was to the coast of São Paulo, Santos. Santos is about 1 hour from the house I grew up in and spent the first 14 years of my life. I do remember I loved the trip, everything about it was fascinating. The speed in which we moved away from the norm, the sound of the road, the different smells. Fast forward about a decade and I was finally able to travel, holding a steady job I was able to take short trips to Orlando and a considerably longer ones to San Francisco and New York City amongst others.

The job allowed me 2 weeks per year to travel, and although it was not much, I enjoyed every minute of it. As my career and paycheck grew, so did my desire to travel, the only thing that did not change was the same measly two weeks of vacation (sometimes called “too weak”). I have since taken advantage of the time to visit family in Brazil. Have also visited Mexico, Bahamas, Colombia, London, France, Spain, and a handful of U.S. states.

This post is getting a bit long I will break it up into two and reveal more about the trip in the next entry.

To be continued…