Why I quit my job and skipped town when I found out I was pregnant

By the title you can get that this a looooong story. But the actions I took were quite fast. The point of this story is to tell you this: when you are sure of something, you can´t let anything hold you back.

I was living in a surf town, Itacaré, for one year to improve my surfing skills and I had a job at the best surf school in the world.

I loved my job. It was a part time job, so for 4+ hours I was in the office and for 4+ hours I was at the beach surfing. I learned a lot about surfing and about being in an efficient organization. It was awesome and I´m grateful that I had that experience.

After one year, however, I hadn´t made many friends out of the job and I dated very little. For me that period was all about surfing and hanging out with my coworkers and soon I started to miss my other surf town, Pipa, where I had lived the previous year. It´s where I call home and have lots of friends, although it´s 3.000 kilometers from where my family lives.

I was making up my mind about this, when the news hit me, I was pregnant! I wasn´t seeing the father of my child anymore (in fact, he wasn´t even in town). So I decided to go home right away. I quit my job and left after giving a month´s notice.

The five reasons that made me leave:

1. I knew I would have more friends to support me back in Pipa (being a single mother, it´s a lot about finding people to help you out).

2. I was sick of the pop music that you hear all over Itacaré, which is in bad taste and I wasn´t going to allow my baby to listen to it (really, it´s called Arrocha, it´s vulgar, horrible and you can´t get away from it, since all the neighborhoods play it loud everyday).

3. It was time for me to settle down for a while (make a real home), and I had to chose where to live fast.

4. I needed a boost in my happiness state in order to transmit positive vibes to my baby. Although the time I spent in Itacaré was awesome, I started to feel unmotivated after a year. I missed the coziness I find in Pipa.

5. I wasn´t making much money in my part time job and I had to come up with something more profitable.

But when I left Itacaré, people thought I was crazy. I was leaving a “safe” job (no jobs are safe on this planet) and a secure place where I was living with two housemates, to start again on my own. Leaving the “safe” job was the hardest thing for people to take.

About the father of my girl, I´ll just say that I kept trying to communicate with him and have him participate in his fatherhood. I only managed to get in touch with him by phone when I was 5 months pregnant, and he came to meet Luísa when she was 4 months old.

When I moved back to my home town, I didn´t have any work yet. And being almost four months pregnant I had to start something fast. So I started to give private Portuguese lessons to foreigners and luckily the thing took off that summer very well and I was able to pay my bills.

I was doing what I felt was the best for me and my coming baby.

I had such a blissful time. I was always going after feeling happy and being outdoors in beautiful surroundings. I listened to good music and I was getting ready for the biggest life change of them all: having a kid!

I know what´s best for me.

I´m sure I made the right decision to move and I´m proud I did it in no time at all. Sometimes you have to act fast before the reasons for you not to do something get in your way.

This story is for you to know me a bit more and to inspire you to take the actions you feel you need to take fast. Don´t waste time doing what others expect you to do. You know better. Trust your guts. When you feel you need to change something, do it!

I´d love to read about any change you made, big or small, especially when “common sense” (or let´s say others´ opinions) was trying to pull you back.

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