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You read that right… WE MOVED TO BELIZE!
You’re probably thinking, “What did I miss?.. This seems sudden.. What about med school?.. For how long?.. Why?..”
Don’t worry, we are going to answer all those questions! So first let’s start with the story of how this all became to be.
Who am I? I would describe myself as an adventurer. Someone who craves new experiences and traveling. I love to be outside, hiking, camping, exploring somewhere new, really I am pretty content doing whatever, as long as I know I am going to have an adventure. My favorite thing above all, is traveling. If you ask me “Who is Matt?” I would probably give you a really similar answer. Matt loves to do all the same things I do, and we love to travel and have new experiences together. This is part of what makes our marriage and relationship so much fun and so special because we have this in common and love being together making memories.
Matt and I started dating 7 1/2 years ago… Where did the time go? I honestly don’t know. But for the past 7 years, we have had one plan. This plan was for Matt to graduate from BYU with his Bachelors in Physiology and Biology, take the MCAT, and eventually get into medical school. Let me just say, Matt is so smart and talented and I am so proud of him and all that he has accomplished. He graduated from BYU after working so hard for 7 long years and he took the MCAT and scored great, especially considering he only studied for 2 weeks, when most people study for 6 months-1 year (I told you he was smart, but also kinda a procrastinator…). He applied to medical schools all across the country this previous Fall and then we waited, and waited… By winter, most schools will have contacted their potential students and at least had an interview. Our hope for this plan started to fail. We both became a little uneasy because we never really thought of a Plan B. We honestly did not know what we would do if Matt didn’t get in to med school.
In January, Matt and I went to Hawaii with some family (read about our trip here). While there, we went scuba diving and had a blast. It was incredible. When we came home, we were still on that “Hawaii high” and one night Matt asked my thoughts on giving up everything and just moving somewhere tropical to get our dive master certifications. I was completely caught off guard and was not expecting him to have such a drastic change of plans, especially after all the hard work he put in the past several years. Of course, I was accepting of listening to this new dream, but I wanted to be practical too. In the back of my mind though, all I could think about was how fun it would be to move and have this adventure.
A few days went by, and then a week, and eventually a month and I could not stop thinking about this idea. Matt and I ended up talking some more about it and the logistics and we reached out to some dive companies in a few Central American countries to gather some information and ask some questions. We prayed about it a lot and finally, we had our answer. We were going to do it.
In the end, besides it feeling right, there are many reasons why we feel that we should take advantage of this opportunity. 1. We are not tied down to any jobs right now. 2. We don’t own a house. 3. We don’t have kids. 4. What better time in our life than now? Our only wish is that we had maybe had the foresight to do it years ago.
I have always, always wanted to live out of the country for a time. This wasn’t exactly the situation I was expecting, but I am stoked nonetheless and I know Matt is too.
We moved to a fairly small island, albeit the largest of over 200 in Belize. The island is called Ambergris Caye and is only 25 miles long and about 1 mile wide with a population of about 20,000 people. There are so many things to do here, but one of the highlights is the diving. Ambergris Caye sits only 3/4 of a mile from the Belize Barrier Reef – a section of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the 2nd largest reef system in the world. The island has a very low-key, laid back vibe.
Throughout the past few months, Matt has been reflecting on his decision to become a doctor for his career. While it is a great profession that provides countless benefits and a very financially comfortable life, there never was a specific reason that he chose medicine, other than that he gets to help people. In fact, Matt decided on this career path fairly young, and has since realized that there are more ways to help people than in medicine. And there are more aspects to providing for a family than just money. The realization of putting career before family time was not worth the fancier house, cars, and toys that being a doctor would provide.
It wasn’t until recently that Matt brought all this up to me and told me that becoming a doctor wasn’t really a dream of his. He just wants to be able to provide for his family. Growing up, the only other profession Matt wanted to go into was becoming a Navy Seal. But it wasn’t the war aspect that drew him to it. It was the mastery in the water. So when we got scuba certified, he started joking that we should just quit our jobs and become full-time “scuba people”. Of course, at that point it was just a fun idea, and we felt that we had to be responsible adults. Diving would have to remain a hobby.
A couple of days after we got back from Hawaii, Matt asked if he could share some of his thoughts with me. This was when he acknowledged his true dream is one in the water. He didn’t want to go into a career that would provide enough for him to do what he loves on the side, but instead live the dream from the start.
So what does this mean? It starts with becoming Divemasters and then Instructors later on, with the hopes of opening a dive shop of our own someday. For now, we are going to focus on getting our Divemaster certification here in Belize. We decided that to get the best education and training, we will live here for a little over two months and get in as much diving and instruction as we can. Our goal is to leave here in a few months as fully certified Divemasters/Dive Guides.
I am the type of person that doesn’t settle for something when I don’t love it or enjoy it. To me, it is worth the extra effort to be doing something that you love. I have had to change jobs for this reason, but in the end it has always been better for me. I have no doubt that whether we decide to make scuba diving our career or not, this experience will open up doors for us and provide us with many new opportunities.
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