Today we moved to Belize, to live and work. We are coming from NYC, moving to Hopkins, Belize to run a resort called Beaches and Dreams. Ryan and I have lived in NYC for about 20 years. Our kids, Fay (9) and Rex (7) have lived in NYC their whole lives. They have not been to Hopkins before so its all new and a little scary to them.
When I told my mom we were moving the family to Belize, the phrase “mid-life crisis” came up. I was a little annoyed at first. But, she does have a point. I have lived a fairly safe and consistent life and not taken many risks. Now that I’m older (45!) and the years ahead of me seem so short, I want to do something very different from what I’ve done before and I’m ok if it scares me. And moving to a foreign country is definitely more interesting than buying an expensive car.
Ryan and I do not have a ton of hospitality experience. He has worked in a few restaurants and has managed our second home rental. I’ve been a computer programmer for my entire professional life. But I’m confident we can learn fast. Perhaps more importantly, we are taking over a successful resort with a super competent staff. To start, we just have to get the hang of it and keep the business running well. No changes, no “improvements”, just continued success.
We decided to look for a resort and ultimately settled on Hopkins because we are looking for a way to live more holistically as a family. We are nostalgic of our childhood when the kids ran around with fewer rules and interventions. We also want to see more of the kids throughout the day, not just for breakfast, dinner and bedtime. The NYC routine felt too cyclical, not enough work/family balance and too scheduled for the kids.
All that being said, the majority of anxiety I am feeling regarding this move is for the kids. They didn’t choose to make this big change and they are very sad to leave their friends in NYC (as are we). We have spent the last 10 years raising our kids alongside our NYC friends who are more like family. Ryan and I will be running a resort and learning a new business, but we will likely be surrounded each day by tourists who are culturally similar to us. On the contrary, the kids will be attending the local school where they will be some of the only outsiders. Yes, this will be an amazing learning experience for them. But the first year is sure to be rough.
Next up, I’ll show you a little bit about where we are living. Hopkins and our first days here.