Guest post: Alexz of Bird Trouble "An introduction & making my passion a reality"

hello everyone! i'm alexz sandoval, a designer, seamstress, & blogger for Bird Trouble. Sally's been so supportive of me over the blogging years that I've known her (I think it's been about 4 years). I appreciate her & find her work drive as an inspiration to me. I've guest posted here before & she's blogged about how she digs the sustainable bags & accessories I make. She even has a few bags! You can see my work & blog on my website, you can follow my wild & free life through my blog with bloglovin', you can see what's in the Bird Trouble store, & you can say "oh hey!" or say whatever you want to me through twitter. 

i'm really excited to be a guest blogger this weekend while Sally is soaking up as much NYC fun as she can and share with you a little bit of my last few months & some pictures. i promise not to bore you. this isn't going to be like "and then yesterday… i did this…", but i do love personal posts & i feel like i have an exciting story that could hopefully inspire a lot of you. i'm going to be talking about my move from Chicago to Mexico, what drove me to pick up & to go: Making my passion a reality & not just a dream. 

It was sometime in late June & I was walking home from a long day of working at the salon. I used to be the Social Media & Marketing Manager for a four location company. I loved my co-workers & being around them, but not so much my work or the environment anymore. It had been 3 years & I wanted to focus on what I had outside, my life, but I was being so affected by the company that by then, what I wanted in my life seemed so far. I'm very judgmental over myself & so was my previous boss; but I also have a very hard head & know what I want - which has always been to not conform to someone else's life. I can thank the punk rock culture I grew up around & my dad for telling me to be a leader for this hard head. That one day in June, I thought "Why the heck not Mexico? My parents live there." I had been thinking about moving for months because I was distracted & it kills me when I can't do what I love. Money was the issue (I know we can all relate with that) but I knew my mom would love for me to come home. It was a really bright light bulb, almost blinding & right in front of my damn face. 

I'd put in my notice at work after I consulted with my best friends. That day & my anxiety almost put me into cardiac arrest because I'm an over-thinker. I also found myself weirdly timid & getting nervous. I know that's because I sometimes felt I was back in high school as the awkward girl being judged by that awful popular cheerleader. It came down to telling myself this over & over - Do not let yourself feel that you are not good enough to move forward. Moving forward should be exciting & exhilarating. Why was I waiting to do what I wanted to do? More so - good riddance to any awful popular cheerleader type. I sold all my furniture or basically gave it away. I put my textiles, craft supplies, 1/4 of my clothing, & my 104lb dog into my dad's Explorer & left. It all happened so quick. 

So here I am now. I've been in this mountain town called Ajijic since August 14th & have been loving every day. I'm currently typing this on my dad's roof where I have so much nature around me the view of a lake & more mountains. I'm here temporarily before I move in with my mom to the city, Guadalajara (half of these pictures are taken there). You can see how lively it is & I want to go toward the fashion & networking opportunities there. I have days where I miss seeing my friends terribly, but that's where Skype & Viber iPhone applications come in. There are growing experiences & challenges with learning what works best for you when growing a business. I'm learning more about it & myself every day while I try not to judge myself so much. Just trying to go with the flow, you know? 

I'll leave you today by telling you not to wait to do what you want to do. What do you desire? You have one life. You are the boss of it. I'm not telling you to leave your job suddenly like I did (I like excitement, what can I say?) & I'm not promising that I will succeed (though I have no doubt I will). I'm just happy my life is exciting & I'm living it. In the words of the dude who inspired my blog post, Henry Rollins (I know Sally's going to like this one!) "The repeating factors of my life have been application, discipline, focus, repetition." "I manage myself. I know where I'm going. I might not finish it. I might not survive it, but I'm the one booking it." You can view that video here.