Fostering serendipity
For those of you who are new to my blog, I’m currently in Portugal until mid-March. How did this happen, you might ask. Well, I hope you’re sitting down, because this is the real story: raw and unfiltered.
I got an email one day in early January, from Thrillist, ranking the cheapest places for freelancers to live around the globe. Algarve, a province on the southern coast was reported to offer both affordable housing as well as cheap food and drink.
It was a cold day when I got this email. Really cold. The temperature in Buffalo had not gotten above freezing in over a week. Portugal looked warm. There were bright colors, over 300 days of sunshine.
Just for fun, I jumped on AirBnB website. I found an entire apartment for $17/night — with a monthly discount, internet and a Juliet balcony. That’s cheaper than I could live almost anywhere, especially a place this beautiful.
A freelance project that was supposed to occupy most of the first and second quarters failed (for now), but I had a small severance to play with as a result.
Pro-tip: Always include a kill fee in your contracts.
Grateful for the opportunity to spend more time in Buffalo with these two, I took a crash course in photography and filled my days exploring light and color and soaking up puppy love.
But, I had not prepared for a winter in the northeast.
An apartment fire in late September had destroyed nearly everything I had ever owned.
No winter jacket. No ski pants or wool socks. None of the critical gear I had acquired during, not just one, but two trips to Standing Rock last year.
I was in limbo. And, a little bit restless. I had also never been to Portugal….
Here’s the thing about life: when you let go of all your expectations for a certain outcome and instead make decisions based on your values, serendipity has a chance to work it’s way in.
Once I had made the decision to go, I quickly found a publication that would contract with me to photograph and write a series of educational articles with the goal of increasing tourism to some of the “non-beach” parts of Portugal.
Pro-tip: this place is a anthropologists wet dream — stone age architecture, ice age engravings and “megalithic structures not seen elsewhere in Europe.”
By the time those articles go to print, the cost of airfare will have been covered. I’m only out living expenses, something I would have incurred regardless. And, it’s ridiculously cheap to live here.
Follow along for more updates on this wild and wonderful #freelancelife, along with weekly tips, tools and ways to stay sane.
A couple of claps never hurt anyone either. Thanks for reading!
