In Pursuit of My American Dream

Recently, I had to face a critical career obstacle that put me in a very insecure situation in regards to my future and that of my family. Like many individuals I have always taken pride in being able to provide for my family through a very stable career, and I have always had a long term plan. This situation has forced me to think outside of the box and beyond my comfort zone, but at the same time it has brought me hope, shed light onto old dreams and reminded me of things I have been wanting to pursue for the last few years.

For some reason, it seems that it was a lot easier for me to take risks or follow my dreams when I was younger. I decided to look back at the earlier years of my life and to think of times when I embraced my fears and followed a dream blindly because I believed the outcome would be greater than the risk. I want to tell you about a time when I took a big risk; I was young, naive and full of dreams...

It was August 6th 1992 when I boarded American Airlines flight Maracaibo - Miami full of hope, faith and with a dream that wasn’t entirely mine. I was about to immigrate to a strange country where I only knew one person and did not speak the language. At the time, I was 17 and my 18th birthday was about a month away. My boyfriend believed we could have a better future in the US, since at the time he had lost his job and had gotten kicked out of his parents’ house and my mother's too. Since I was madly in love, I decided to blindly follow his dream and immigrate with him and my three year old daughter.

Over a three month period we got all of our paperwork in place, packed three suitcases and pulled all of our savings ($800) and embarked on our journey to immigrate to the US. Someone had suggested we buy tickets to Miami and not NYC because there were so many deals for tourists going to see Mickey that it was cheaper and that we would be better off buying one way tickets to NYC once we arrived.

New York was our ultimate destination, it was where his aunt lived and she had promised to help us find jobs and provide us with housing until we got on our feet.

The best part about the story, aside from the fact that we thought $800 would go a long way, is that neither one of us spoke English. In fact, even on the plane the flight attendant couldn't understand me so I had to use my tiny pocket English/Spanish dictionary that a very special friend had given me.

We made it through immigration with no incidents, it was about noon at this point and we needed to find the next flight to NYC right away. My boyfriend left me sitting in a waiting area with my young daughter and our three suitcases somewhere in Miami International Airport.

Three hours went by and there was no sign of my boyfriend. At this point I was in tears, I didn’t speak the language, I was in a foreign country with my child and who knows what could have happened to him. I began to panic and what-if’s started to fill up my brain but there was nothing I could do but cry silently because my daughter was watching. He showed up almost four hours later; it turned out he went to every single airline and tickets to NY were $300+ each so for the three of us it was almost $1000 (which we did not have). Luckily, he was able to find a newer airline that would fly us there for a total of $350, however the next flight wasn't until the next day.

We managed to get a cheap room in a hotel that offered shuttle service to and from the airport (God forbid we would get lost in Miami and miss the flight). Our budget was getting smaller and smaller, so dinner and breakfast was at McDonald's at the airport for about $12 each.

The morning went smooth, we took the shuttle from the hotel, made our flight and arrived safely at JFK. His aunt greeted us at the airport, happy that we had managed to get through the adventure and that was when the search for our American Dream began.

Fast forward twenty something years later; I have gone through so many experiences good ones and challenging ones. I have been able to raise two amazing daughters, have been married twice, have built an amazing retail management career, have been a home owner twice, lived in six cities and traveled to eight countries. None of this would have been possible if I had not followed my dreams and taken that leap of faith.

The reality is that chasing dreams and staying open to new possibilities gets harder as we get older. The more rough experiences we have the wiser we get, more burned out, the less likely we are to take chances. Even changing careers, becoming an entrepreneur, falling in love again or chasing your dreams becomes less and less attractive because we know better. We’ve been through that road before...and it’s too risky and too painful. We also worry a lot more about managing appearances and what people might say or think.

I am sure all of you can think of a time when you had to be brave, overcome a challenge, started a new venture or took a risk. I shared my story with you with the purpose of reminding us to chase our dreams. Regardless of how scared we might be or how much risk is involved, there’s the possibility of achieving something greater! Don’t let fear hold you back, chase that dream today, your "American Dream”.

Feel free to share your thoughts with me, can you think back to a time when you got out of your comfort zone to chase a dream? What holds you back from pursuing your dreams today?

#youareneveralone #grateful #courage #selfawareness #coaching #findyourpurpose

"Gina Martin is a Sales professional, with experience in running her own successful Direct Sales business. For the last 10+ years has held high level positions in Specialty Retail such as Store Director, Multi Store Manager and Flagship General Manager. Gina's passion for building high performing teams, coaching and mentoring has made her known in the industry. Gina is also a mother of two, and an aspiring writer. Her extraordinary life experiences have inspired her to explore a Life Coaching career."

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