Wherever there's WiFi

Back in March 2020, I was an NYU grad student traveling to Panama for spring break. Skip to a couple of weeks later, and I’m still in Panama, not being able to fly back because of a certain virus. NYU stopped holding classes on its campus and told every student to download an app I had never heard of before called Zoom. Millions of other students and professors across the world were also instantly catapulted into the world of remote learning. 

Like most of us, I didn’t think this setup would last longer than a semester. Then months went by, the news kept getting scarier, and the light at the end of the tunnel was nowhere to be seen. Airline stocks plummeted and Zoom’s stock price reached all time highs, the world economy had accepted a new status quo: remote was here to stay. 

I graduated in December of that same year and received a PDF instead of a paper diploma. Now, it was time to find a job and put that virtual education to good use. I thought getting a job in the US wouldn’t be possible because I was still stuck in Panama. All that changed when an American ad agency gave me a chance at doing freelance art direction for them, all the way from my bedroom. 

For some context, Panama’s lockdown was still in full effect with police patrolling the streets to make sure people weren’t breaking their curfew. Nobody had a social life, and those who tried to would either get reported by some noisy neighbor, fined by the government or shamed on social media. 

Everyday I was working in my boxers alone in my room for long hours, with my only human interactions coming in the form of Slack messages. This was the perfect formula for getting burnt out and depressed. Work from Home was starting to feel like Live at Work and the line that defined my work-life balance was starting to get erased. 

This is when I began experimenting with the possibilities of WFH. To get some company and a change in scenery, I started going to work at my girlfriend’s place and vice versa. The more comfortable we got with this notion, the more we started working from different types of places. We started taking beach trips that were weeks long, and we could do so because we had a good internet connection. The casual ocean dips in between meetings didn’t get in the way of getting more work done. So much so that my girlfriend and I took it one step further, and decided we could probably do this from another country if we wanted. 

Next thing we knew, we were flying to Mexico, renting a car and doing a month-long road trip along the pacific coast. We were able to stay in lots of different cities, towns and beaches, as well as get immersed in the culture and tradition of each place we visited. We did all of this while still taking the same amount of Zoom meetings and churning out the same amount of work. 

This trip was possible too because we were both earning in dollars and spending in pesos, like Tim Ferris preaches in his book The 4-Hour Workweek. The food and the Airbnbs were extremely cheap when compared to prices in New York or even Panama City. We felt that as long as we kept making a living, we could stay in Mexico indefinitely. 

This trip made everything click for me. I was happier and more productive than I had been in a long time, I would even go as far as claiming that being happier led to me being more productive. I was able to start juggling more and more projects, to the point that I was able to consider doing this forever, not working from home, but rather working from wherever there’s WiFi.

If you have a remote job, I implore you, take advantage of this opportunity, get off your couch and explore other internet connections, you won’t regret it.