Start With Starting

In my case it started with a deep-seated desire to leave the United States.

That desire, however, felt very far off due to financial limitations. When I was 20, and very much working full time while I went to school full time, I was planning and saving for a solo trip a year out to go to New Orleans. This would’ve involved buying my first plane ticket and first hotel room. The only ‘foreign’ country I had ever visited was when I accidentally ended up in Canada for a few hours.

During this time a co-worker threw out the term ‘flight attendant’ which subsequently lead to a googling session that resulted in an application submitted to the first airline listed at the closest airport.

Buying my first hotel room was not fated for New Orleans after all but in another city, for the night before my in-person interview. Almost a decade later and I’ve still never purchased a plane ticket.

With this new job I could see snippets of these other countries and for a time I went in my free time for more of a mouthful.

Like in all things there is the inescapable reality that is timing. My timing for the industry was not great and I was rotting on 24/7 call chained to airports in expensive cities. A few base transfers later and it really hit me that all these cities even the rougher ones were too expensive for too little in return. It was the final thing that truly solidified that my future would not be in America.

Almost 7 years after becoming a flight attendant that timing that had been holding me hostage suddenly shifted and I was no longer on call. My leash had been cut.

Spain crystallized for me not just because of who or what I am but because of the stark contrast it provided to the negatives I had been experiencing; low cost of living, reliable public transportation, temperate climate, a strong artistic pulse.

Barcelona or Madrid were the obvious choices for ease of getting to work but Madrid lacked beach access and has far too much of my biological family roaming around. Barcelona while beautiful and one of the first cities I fell in love with is so overrun with tourists during the “on season” the idea of fighting against cascading throngs of tourists to get groceries made my heart shrivel.

I was looking for peace, warmth, some degree of quiet and an international airport to be able to get to work. Málaga became that answer and more specifically Benalmádena. Yes there are tourists in the on season but not to the same degree as Barcelona and I can get my groceries in peace.