Have you ever had a moment when everything looks good on paper, but something inside you is telling you, I don't think this is for me anymore?
Maybe it’s a relationship. Maybe it’s work. Maybe it’s something else in your life that just doesn’t feel right anymore.
I have. Actually, I’ve had that feeling more than once.
When I look back at my life now, it’s funny because things make so much more sense. At the time, I had no idea where any of it was going. I wasn’t sitting there with some big master plan for my life. I was just following my gut, making a change when something no longer felt right, and figuring out the next step along the way. Now I can see how it all connected.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I’ve been doing this for most of my life.
I was a sportscaster at a time when there were very few women working in sports at a major television network, and even fewer Latina women. I was covering major events and living the career I had worked so hard to build. I was young, already a sports anchor in one of the top television markets in the country, and honestly, I was at the top of my game. From the outside, it looked like the perfect life.
But then my dad passed away, and everything changed. The truth is, I just couldn’t give that job what I had always given it. I couldn’t give 200%. And I knew that if I couldn’t give my viewers, my coworkers, and myself everything I had, then it was time for me to step away.
Everyone thought I was crazy. They couldn’t understand why I would walk away from something so many people would have done anything to have. And honestly, I understood why they felt that way. On paper, I had everything I had worked so hard for. But sometimes your life doesn’t make decisions based on what looks good on paper.
That experience taught me something I’ve carried with me ever since: you have to learn to trust yourself, even when the people around you don’t understand your decision.
So then I found myself working as a publicist and community manager for a Major League Soccer team. I spent the next five years with them, and when it wasn’t fulfilling me anymore, when I knew in my heart it was time to move on, I had to take a step back and walk away again.I didn’t have another job lined up. But I had started this blog.
And this is where I really believe everything happens for a reason. I had started the blog as a hobby. It was my escape. It was something I did because I loved fashion, I loved writing, and I loved having a creative outlet that was completely mine. I had no idea that something I started just for fun would eventually become the beginning of something much bigger.
So I quit my PR job and moved to New York. I didn’t have a job waiting for me, I didn’t really know anybody, and I didn’t have a group of friends waiting for me there. But I knew deep inside that I needed to make this change. So, I moved with a dream and three suitcases! And if you’ve been following my blog, that’s really where this journey began.
I was traveling, working with amazing brands, writing for national magazines, shopping like there was no tomorrow, and living my best Carrie Bradshaw life. I had built a life in New York that I absolutely loved, and honestly, I was having the time of my life. But when that chapter no longer felt right, I knew it was time to move back. Eventually, I found myself asking that same question again: What’s next? And that question led me to take another leap and launch my eponymous shoe line, Flor de Maria.
Now, when I look back, I realize I wasn’t starting over all those times. I was simply moving on to the next piece of the puzzle. I just couldn’t see the whole picture yet.
All of those experiences in my life have led me to realize something: maybe we’re not always stuck when we don’t know what comes next. Maybe we’re just standing at the beginning of something we can’t see yet. I know that feeling well. I’ve lived it more than once, and every time, taking that next step led me somewhere I never could have imagined.
Looking back, the moments when I felt the most uncertain were often the moments right before my life was about to change in ways I couldn’t have planned. I didn’t have all the answers. I just knew I couldn’t stay where I was. And maybe that’s all we really need sometimes.
So if you’re feeling stuck right now, wondering What’s next?, maybe you don’t need to have it all figured out. Maybe you just need to trust that feeling inside you and be brave enough to take the next step. You never know where it might lead you.
Maybe you’re not stuck. Maybe you’re just ready for something new.
And that’s where I’ll leave you… for now.