I have been feeling a whirlwind of emotions over the past few weeks. I have moved to a completely new city, I have met amazing new people that have similar goals and values that have become my good friends, I’ve seen more of Portugal, and have tried new Portuguese dishes. I’ve felt pure joy, gratitude, sadness, loneliness, confusion, doubt, and excitement.
I’ve been able to do this because I decided to take a risk with my career and start my own consulting company. I wanted to do this for two reasons. I wanted to control my time and I wanted to be flexible with where I could work from. I am a traveler by nature. I don’t like the cold so I want to avoid winter as much as possible. The excited feeling I get when a plane lands in a new place is addictive because all I can think about is all the new people I will meet and experiences I will have and I never anticipate how great those experiences will end up being. I go into these situations with an open heart and mind. In November of 2021, I started Amanda Perkins Consulting Inc. and got my first contract with Deloitte to manage one of their Global Salesforce Products. It was a role that aligned with my skillset and I created a connection with one of the partners that made me feel like we would have a strong working relationship – and my gut was right. I was super transparent about my desire to travel and have more flexible work hours and he was very supportive. I set a shorter contract so we could revisit if the setup is working or not, and then evolve our working relationship from there. It also allows me to take on other contracts if I’d like, as I am someone who enjoys lots of different types of work. I move around a lot because I feel like I haven’t found a spot I want to make my home yet. I am on this exploratory path. People say home is a feeling and so far, the feeling that I’ve experienced in the places I have lived hasn’t made me feel like I want to settle yet. But I am also impatient and maybe I need to give a place more time before it will feel like home. I know there is no such thing as a perfect place, but I do think it’s a feeling that I haven’t felt yet. I know I am not living a conventional life. All I do know was staying in Toronto wasn’t it for me. I needed to leave and explore and challenge myself to set work on my own terms and try living a little unconventionally. I’m proving to myself that I can make decisions that are for me, and for me only. And when I get overwhelmed and think I am making a bunch of crazy decisions, I know that at the end of the day, life is just a bunch of experiences that we all have on this floating rock and we should try to add as much joy and love to ourselves and others as we can.
