Hi there, EJ here. Welcome to Women Breaking Trans. It's a new to me channel. It is a channel
for women over 50, but it's also women over 20, 30, 40, 60, 70, any age actually can really
hang out and listen. But because I am a woman slightly over 50, I've created this channel
just for women over 50. Today I want to talk a little bit about becoming an ex-pat, which
is somebody who has, for those of you who don't know what an ex-pat is, it's somebody
who has left their town, their city, their country, their job, their everything and totally
moved to a completely different country and started a whole new life. So I did that. I'm
going to tell you a little bit about my story and then I'm going to just give you a few
little tips on how you can do that too. Because when I look back, because I've been an ex-pat
now for a little over five years, when I look back now, I can kind of go, yeah, you know
it was a little bit of hard work, but it was actually kind of easy to pull off at the end
of the day. So, for my story, and I think in my first video, my introduction video to
this channel, I said, I promised you I was going to tell you a little bit about my story
I'm going to do that today. So I was a hairdresser in Canada. I'm from Northern Ontario Canada
Sudbury, Ontario to be exact. It was the mining town of about, maybe about 175,000 people
Northern Ontario, so you can imagine the winters were really, really brutal. Yeah. And I'm
not a winter person. Anyway, so I was a hairdresser there for 25 years and the 2013, I think 2012
no, no, no, it was 2012, I had just left an abusive relationship and I had spent the year
you know, doing a, on a healing journey and rediscovering my purpose and who am I and
what do I want and what I want out of life. And I just, you know, there were so many questions
at that time that I was asking. I was 52 years old at the time. So if you want to do the
math, I'm 58 years old this year. I'll save you the trouble of doing the math. I am 58
But at the time, you know, I had just crossed 50, 52 years old and I was starting to ask
myself all these questions. Oh my God, what am I doing? What am I doing with my life? And when I was 52 years old, my life, sometimes as fun as they were, I dealt with an awful
lot of abuse, emotional, physical, sexual, verbal, mental, all, my whole life was just
spent being abused, not having any voice, not having any self respect or self love
self confidence, all the stuff. I didn't have anything. When I left my relationship for
2012, I was literally a celibate human being and I thought, okay, hell, what am I going
to do now? Here I am at 52 and look at my life. My life is a fucking train wreck. What
am I going to do now? Sorry, I swear I shouldn't have told you that. I swear if you're not
into swearing, maybe you can turn this off and go to another channel. I swear. I'm sorry
So I spent a year healing, rediscovering myself. What do I want to do? I was wallowing in self
pity. I mean, I went through a whole year almost of self pity. Oh my God, poor me. Look
at my life. My life sucks. This is horrible. It was ridiculous. How I had any friends is
beyond, I don't even know why they even hung around me because all I could do was whine
and complain about my life because it was horrible. So I started volunteering at the
homeless shelter. It's something that I've always wanted to do. And I met a friend and
we were like, Oh yeah, I volunteer at the homeless shelter. I'm like, Oh, I think I'd really love to do that. So I went to the homeless shelter and I started off just eating dinner
twice a month and I loved it so much. Like volunteering at the homeless shelter for me
was a catalyst for my entire life overhaul. It really was. So I started volunteering and
then I was doing that twice a month. And then after about a year, I became the team captain
and then I was there like almost every day. But it made me stop and think, okay, this
is something that I really, really love doing. I'm really passionate about doing, but I wanted
to do it on a grander scale. So I'm just going to fast forward and skip all the minute details
I went on the volunteer mission trip to Costa Rica. It was really eye opening. And when
I got back to Canada, I thought, okay, you know what, this is something I want to do
all the time. Like I want to be somewhere where poverty is like a major problem. Homelessness
is a major problem. Malnutrition. So I decided at that time that I was going to try to do
what I got to do to completely change my life, my career and everything so that I could move
to Central America and just do this. I can work as a freelancer and I can help the poor
people and the hungry people and the homeless people and all that stuff. So that's what
I did. So I became... I think my jaw is just kicking around here so much. So I learned
how to become a freelance writer. Keeping in mind I was still a hairdresser at this
time. I learned how to become a freelance writer and I just started looking for jobs
It took a really long time. I'm not going to lie about that. It took me about six months
Six months of writing and just submitting articles for free just so people could see
who I am and what my work was all about because nobody knew who the fuck I was. So I did that
for free for about six months. Then finally somebody started accepting my articles still
for free and then it was probably about six months after that that I actually found work
as a freelance writer. Somebody actually hired me full time to be freelance writer. So it
was a year for me to take my hairdressing career and completely just say goodbye to
that, hang up my covering shoes and become a freelance writer. Once I became a freelance
writer then my next step was to pick a country that I wanted to move to. I ended up in Guatemala
and this actually wasn't even a country that I was even considering when I thought about
going to Central America. I had a TV reader choose my country for me because I didn't
know it. I'm a Libra. I am socket making decisions. I had a TV reader tell me to go to Guatemala
and that's how I ended up down here and I really, really, really love Guatemala. Guatemala
is beautiful and the people are amazing. So that's kind of the path that I took to be
able to leave my country and move out of my country and become an expat in a totally different
country. It doesn't snow, yay. But what I want to share with you right now is today
how did you do it, how did you do it. Well, A, I was determined to do it. You have to
have determination. You have to, I got so tired of the life that I was living and I
knew that there had to be something more. I knew there had to be something more. I knew
that this was the life in Canada as a hairdresser, cutting hair for somebody else and building
somebody else's dream. I was tired of that. That wasn't for me anymore. For your desire
to change has to be greater than your desire to stay in misery. All right. And I know it's
like to live in misery because I lived in misery most of my life to be honest. Like
the desire to change has to be bigger. Like it has to overpower your desire to stay in
misery. So when you're ready to take that leap and you're ready to make that change
when you've decided to figure it out, I fucking had enough. I've had enough. When you get
to that point, it's a really good point actually. But when you get to that point after you're
like, oh, what do I got to do now? What's my next step? What do I have to do now? And
that's when you start looking into all your options. Now I know that some women over 50
are already close to retirement. They have a great little retirement package. You can
get that and then you can go anywhere. I didn't have that. I didn't, I'm not retired. I didn't
have a retirement package. I have to still work. So I have to find ways to still be able
to work and leave my country and still be able to support myself, which is why I became
a freelancer. So for those women, for those of you who are close to retirement and you
have a nice comfy little retirement package waiting for you when you retire, then if where
you're living doesn't really interest you anymore, you want to leave the country, it's
really not that hard to do. I joined a few Facebook groups for different countries and
I asked a bunch of questions and I, you know, met some people and asked a bunch of questions
and no question is a dumb question. If you, let's say for example, you think you want
to move to Asia, let's just say Asia. So go and join some Facebook groups, expect Facebook
groups in Asia and start asking questions. How did you do it? What do you need? What's
the healthcare system like? What's the health of safe? I mean, you ask whatever you want
to ask and everybody is more than happy to answer your questions because everybody knows
exactly where you are right now. Everybody started at zero. They all, we all did. So
join Facebook groups for the country that you have on your radar that maybe you think
you might want to move to. Ask some questions, get some information. It's really, really
easy to do that. People are very helpful. And start planning, like literally start planning
and preparing for your move. And I get, and probably right now it might be a little bit
of an iffy time because borders are open, borders are closed. What's the COVID like
I mean, I know COVID has really put a damper on a lot of people's travel plans, but some
places are still open, borders are still open. Like I was able, I had, I was over in Mexico
for a year and I had to wait for the Guatemala border to reopen so I can return to Guatemala
I was stuck in Mexico for a while. So when they reopened their border in September, I
was booking a ticket and coming back home. So check and see which borders are open, check
and see what the restrictions are. If you're watching this video a year later and all the
borders are open, then go pick your country and just go. It's actually not that hard to
become an expat and to leave your country. It's really not. And I know, and I think a
lot of women as well are worried, or probably a little scared about travelling as a female
solo traveler. And I just want to say, it's not any more dangerous than where you live
right now. Right? I mean, there's crime in the United States, there's crime in Canada
there's crime all over the world. So it doesn't matter what country you move to, there is
crime. And as far as safety goes, you just use your common sense. Like here, for example
here in Guatemala, I wouldn't travel by car or drive on the streets at nighttime, like
I would at night if you're going from, you know, a city to another little town or something
Travelling at night isn't really highly recommended. So I'm going to stay off the streets at night
You know what I mean? You can walk around at night. It's pretty safe to walk around
at night, or I live. It's very safe. Use your common sense. And it's the same common sense
you would use if you were in your country. Don't leave your purse on your cart and walk
away and expect your purse to still be there on your wall. People are going to steal shit
It's the same here too. It's the same no matter where you go. Use common sense. It's very
very safe. You know, don't get into cars with strangers. You wouldn't do that in your own
town either. So being a female solo traveller is a lot safer than people think. People don't
realise that it's actually pretty safe if you use your common sense. And you don't..
you have to be careful. You can't trust everybody as soon as you get to the country where you're
going, right? You have to make some friends, make some ex-pat friends, preferably. People
that have lived in your town that you're going to for a while. And, you know, ask questions
Get to know your area. So yeah. So that's all. I just wanted to share that little story
with you about how I went from Canada and how I ended up in Guatemala. How my life has
absolutely changed. I haven't... this is really funny. I haven't worn a watch since I left
Canada because time doesn't really matter. It doesn't matter what time it is, ever, any
time of the day. Sometimes I'm not even sure what day of the week it is. There's no stress
Life is very simple here. It's very beautiful. And when you realise, once you leave your
country and then, especially for me in Canada, I had a car and I had an apartment and I had
insurance and I had all these bills coming out of my house and I had this and I had all
this debt and all that kind of stuff. And when you leave your country and you move
I moved to a third world country, all that is like completely gone. I don't have a car
I have a scooter, but I don't have a car. I don't have insurance. I don't have debt
I don't have anything. I buy my food, I pay my rent, I pay my cell phone bill, and that's
like $20 a month. Like it's just... your level of stress goes from here to like here. Like
it's just really crazy. And your quality of life goes up like a million times. So, anyway
I'm just going to leave you with that. If you are thinking about leaving your country
you're thinking about moving, or you want to become an expat, or you're tired of life
wherever you are, it's not that hard to do. It really isn't. It's going to take a little
bit of work, if you're still working, if you're close to your apartment, you're ready to leave
your country and start thinking of a place you want to leave and move to
Oh, gorgeous. Fred Bird just flew across. I wish you guys could have seen that. So, anyway
that's the show. That's what I have to share with you guys today. I hope you got a little bit out of this message. Maybe we'll talk next time. Next video we might talk a little
bit more about... I guess a little bit more about the freelance world. For those of you
that are still working and want to leave and not sure how to do that, maybe we'll talk
a little bit more about that. I'm not really sure. This is just going to be a really random
channel with random women over 50 topics. So, I don't know what's going to come up next
week, but we'll see. Anyway, thanks for being here. If you did like this video, please share
it, comment, like, subscribe. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button down below. I
am going to come on here probably at least once a week for sure, for sure, maybe twice
So, that's all I've got for you guys today. And, before I leave, I also need to have another
channel where I do English card readings, because I am an English card reader. So, I
have another channel. I'll drop the link to that down below so you can go check out my
English card readings, because maybe that's something that resonates with you as well. So, anyway, that's all I've got. Goodbye from sunny Guatemala. I love you guys and I'll
catch y'all back here again soon. Bye for now