I’m thinking that I’ll write a monthly update… It’s already a week into March… Let’s see how long I keep it up!
January was a transitional month, with no responsibilities beyond deciding which beach to hang out at. It was the break I needed to ease into my new life as a freelance writer and editor with no fixed abode.
In February I started my first contract and learned the pleasure of filing a piece before heading to the beach.
In all seriousness though, running your own business puts the onus on you to take all the responsibility. To set your schedule, to chase contracts, to promote yourself, to deal with accounting, to balance your time — still eat and go outside and spend time with family and friends.
But this is what choosing to take this path is all about – to work from the porch of an apartment in Barbados, feeling the breeze coming off the ocean, to switch off the laptop after finishing work and go to a festival.
I’ve been determined to ease into it, keeping my workload light so that I can enjoy my surroundings. I planned my finances this way to have the first several months to decompress and explore, building up my work slowly. Time will tell whether I dissolve into panic later in the year.
In February I hired a car for the rest of my stay, which has changed the rhythm of my days. How exhilarating to drive the highways of the island, the radio blaring soca music, catching glimpses of the shimmering sea from the corner of my eye.
There have been some days when the weather has turned, tropical rainshowers lashing against the windscreen. It makes me glad to be in the heat rather than bundled up against the damp cold in London.
Time is escaping fast and I only have a few weeks left here. While I’m sad about the prospect of leaving, I’m excited that my travel plans will take me to southeast Asia after a two-week stop in London. As I’m picking up new work the challenge will be keeping up while I’m on the road, literally taking day-long bus journeys.
Not a bad dilemma at all.
