- Once I was provided a dream job, I moved my household from the mainland US to Puerto Rico in 2015.
- On the island, we generally had no working water, struggled to get round, and objects had been pricey.
- Although we struggled to adapt, we cherished island life and did not remorse the transfer.
In 2015, I moved my household of 4 from Pennsylvania to Puerto Rico to pursue my dream job. Though I had lived on the island after I was younger and vacationed there, I had by no means labored professionally or lived there as an grownup.
Once I accepted the job as a service supervisor at a MedTech firm, I fell in love with the thought of heat climate and being close to the seaside year-round. Plus, the job provided me worldwide expertise, which I used to be on the lookout for.
The considered residing, working, and perhaps even retiring in Puerto Rico motivated me essentially the most. However the actuality of the island life wasn’t what I anticipated.
A struggling financial system made each day life pricey
Throughout one in every of my first days, an worker quipped, “I used to be questioning in case you knew what was occurring on the island. Everyone seems to be leaving, however you took a job right here.”
I used to be unaware that individuals had been leaving the island for the US mainland for higher job alternatives. The decline was resulting from a struggling financial system and a rising unemployment fee.
Since my firm paid for all the things at first — together with meals whereas we had been in a lodge — I did not discover how costly on a regular basis objects had been. That was till I needed to pay for them out of my very own pocket.
Office norms had been totally different on the island
Having labored most of my profession on the US mainland, I used to be used to residing life on a strict schedule. Conferences began after they had been meant to and ended on the applicable time.
However there was a extra lax tradition round timeliness at my new job. Conferences that did not begin or finish on time had been virtually a each day work frustration.
On a number of events, attempting to impose my US-bred administration fashion, I might name an worker who was late to a gathering however was unable to succeed in them, just for them to stroll in quarter-hour late with Starbucks of their palms.
Water scarcity was a harsh actuality
When my household and I moved into our rented residence in Cataño, we had been shocked to seek out that there was no working water.
Puerto Rico was in a drought for the primary time in virtually twenty years. Water was rationed, and we needed to retailer it for the times when the water was turned off.
I used to be used to getting access to water after I wanted it on the mainland, so it was a wrestle for my household to adapt. Within the US, we by no means had the native water division ration water due to a drought.
Getting across the island was a problem
I typically drove across the island. For a distance that will usually take me an hour within the US, even with some site visitors, in Puerto Rico, it took 30 to 45 minutes longer.
Driving on the island freeway system was nothing like my regular drive on the I-76 in Pennsylvania, which stretches from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. The one factor that will cease me in Pennsylvania was the necessity to get gasoline — not a site visitors gentle in a small city in the midst of the interstate.
Within the US, I used to be used to highways that had been clearly marked with white strains. That was not all the time the case in Puerto Rico.
Additionally, site visitors norms are usually not the identical. In Puerto Rico, it’s normal for drivers to cease at a crimson gentle, look each methods after which simply preserve going. On one event, as I waited at a crimson gentle with my household, one other driver behind me bought out of his automotive to inform me to run the crimson gentle. Once I refused, he merely drove round me.
Puerto Rico continues to be a paradise to take pleasure in
Regardless of my challenges residing in Puerto Rico, we loved the nice and cozy climate, seashores, sightseeing, and meals.
We took the ferry from Cataño throughout the bay to Outdated San Juan to go sightseeing. As a household, we went to the seaside on Isla Verde, which was solely half-hour away from us and one of the vital stunning seashores on the island. Going just a little additional down from Isla Verde seaside, we regularly stopped on the kiosks on the facet of the freeway to purchase lots of the island’s standard meals dishes.
After simply over a 12 months, we ultimately returned to the mainland after I landed one other job. My time in Puerto Rico was memorable, and I don’t remorse it.
But when I needed to do it yet again, I might analysis the island extra to make sure I used to be prepared for the transfer and higher plan to regulate to the distinction between residing on an island and the US mainland. I wrongly assumed that since Puerto Rico is a part of the US, the infrastructure and the methods of residing could be the identical, however that was not the case.
