Back to Reality: Time to Move Back to the US

For the past two years, I've been living in Penang, Malaysia.

My husband and I, along with the dog, cat and many bicycles, moved to the other side of the world for his job. Now the contract to live here is up, and we're moving back to the US, or back to reality as some have said.

While I did title this 'back to reality,' the true reality is living here gave me an opportunity to do something I've always wanted to do: work for myself. Given my experience in customer service, web design, HubSpot and WordPress, building a new business providing these services was a no-brainer. I had freelanced before, but only as an addition to school or 'day job.' I never had the chance to give freelancing a full go. Student loans are expensive, and have to be paid regularly, or so I've learned.

The first year of living here was a year of change. In the span of a month I quit my job at a local software and marketing company, got married and moved to Asia. Before this, I had never been out of the country, never needed a passport. Now, my passport is nearly full (thanks full-page visas!). The rest of the year I spent either making new friends, cycling around the island I now called home or doing work for a small number of clients I picked up before moving overseas.

This past year has been remarkable for my business, once I set my mind to it.

Thanks to my ongoing clients and a perfect number of one-off projects, I'm returning to the US without worrying about finding a job. I already have one.

I also have a few folks that regularly help me with client-work, content creation and operations. This means I can take time off of work without stressing that the business will fall apart while I'm cycling around Malaysia for the last time, or (next week) attending HubSpot's Inbound conference.

In a couple of days I'm flying out of Penang and back to Boston, with the reality of working from home in the US full-time.

I want to thank my clients that put their trust in me over the past two years. It's because of them I'm able to continue doing what I love, and they're the reason why I love doing design and marketing.

In the past two years I've cycled the muddy roads of Cambodia, had elbow wars with Chinese tourists in front of the Mona Lisa and drank entirely way too much beer in Munich. I 'acquired' a local street dog who is really not going to enjoy the snow in Boston, and actually started mountain biking.

I designed and built countless websites, and helped numerous clients with their marketing strategy and direction. I even spent days in the Hong Kong airport lounge working on my own site so I could focus less on marketing, and more on client work.

I guess it's time to go home.