Lessons from Remote Working Across Three Continents

From Young, Gifted and Black to Mature, Bold and Free (And Still Black!)

I’ve always connected to the song To Be Young, Gifted and Black.

It wasn’t just a soundtrack. It was an identity. I’ve been in talented and gifted programs since the fifth grade. Being “gifted” meant I had a path forward—one paved with Black excellence, responsibility, and the hope that being smart, hardworking, and successful would save me.

And for a while, it did.

But somewhere along the way, I began to long for something more. Not just to be gifted, but to be free. Free to dream, to rest, to create, to travel and to live life on my own terms. Free from U.S. racism and anti-blackness (or at least a reprieve).

So last year, I stopped dreaming and started doing.

One of my dreams is to live abroad, at least part time. To search for my next home,
I worked remotely across three continents over the past year—six weeks in Senegal (with a side trip to Cape Verde), four in Colombia and Ecuador, and five more across Mexico, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic.

What started as a travel dream quickly became a life lab—a place to test what a more liberated, aligned life abroad could feel like.

Bold Moves in Action

When I wrote the LinkedIn post calling Black women in transition to share their struggles—and the Substack article Black Women Leave Sooner—I had no idea it would resonate so deeply. The DMs, shares, and emails from Black women poured in: women who felt seen, affirmed, and finally given permission to name their dreams—of businesses, books, and career shifts they had held in their hearts for too long—and to voice their struggles: being stuck in fear—of change, of loss, of failure. My survey, free coaching sessions, workshops, summer series, and Substack articles, I hope, offered Black women a little more courage to walk away from what no longer fit. Not just jobs—but old expectations, systems, and stories.

And, because I am an advocate of taking your own advice, I want to share what I learned from taking the Bold Move to remote work across continents:

1. The Myth of Arrival

Leaving isn’t a magic wand.

I didn’t float through the diaspora in a state of constant bliss. I worked across time zones. I struggled with Wi-Fi, unfamiliar customs, and times of loneliness. But even in the chaos, something sacred was happening. I was becoming more honest about what I needed. Leaving wasn’t the end. It was the beginning of a deeper becoming.

2. Time Zones Can Be Teachers

In Senegal, I was five hours ahead. That meant long, slow mornings—breakfast on the terrace, coffee and conversation with friends and space for deep reflection. Work started at 2 PM. My meetings were mostly Tuesday through Thursday. Mondays were for exploring and creativity. Fridays were flex days, I could rest, work, create or explore - I could respond to what was needed that week.

3. Start Slow, Then Flow

In each country, I gave myself space to land. I’d arrive on a Thursday or Friday, spend the weekend walking, wandering, on tours, absorbing. Work started Tuesday. I let the place meet me before my laptop did. When I arrived during the week, I’d take the first few days off to get to know each country, its history, culture and cuisine on long walks, history tours, museum visits. I started each journey with deep presence and engagement.

4. Connection Is Currency

In every place, I found my people—Black expats, local creatives, fellow solo travelers. At every turn, I found FB groups, What’s app communities, I met people for dinner and drinks, invited a friend to visit or went on a date. We shared dreams and laughter over arepas, wine, and WhatsApp chats.

I joined groups for Black travelers, solo women, and digital nomads. I attended festivals like the Biennale in Dakar, Senegal and The Festival of the Diaspora in Colombia. That’s how I found the Black Women’s Walking Group in Mexico City, Karaoke with Black Women Expats in Colombia, a 5 year anniversary celebration at Fat Jessies, a restaurant owned by a Black expat in Sosua, Dominican Republic. The internet can be your introvert superpower. I posted in groups and reached out to friends of friends letting them know I was in town and for how long. I never failed to get at least one connection and that was key to my joy and happiness.

5. Every Country Has Its Own Medicine

Each place gave me what I didn’t know I needed:
🇲🇽 Mexico City fed my mind and palate—mezcal, murals, and midnight joy.
🇸🇻 San Salvador was soulful and scrappy—a small city on the rise surrounded by volcanos.
🇩🇴 The DR was all sun and sea—a call to release and be.
🇸🇳 Senegal offered slow mornings and spiritual grounding.
🇨🇴 Colombia was color, rhythm, and the thrill of newness.

Remote work didn’t just let me take Zoom calls from anywhere—it let me rediscover presence, rhythm, and possibility.

Five Things I Now Know for Sure

1. You don’t have to wait until you’re broken to walk away.
   Making a bold move, like leaving the country, your job or starting something new, can be sacred—even a whisper of intuition you finally honor.
   

2. Your best ideas are waiting for you to slow down.
   I left to work remotely but found clarity, creativity, and connection with my deeper self, with my purpose and dreams.
   

3. Home can be portable. Joy can be re-rooted.
   I found home in Dakar cafés and Colombian rooftop sunsets. And in myself.
   

4. There is no perfect time—just permission.
   No one’s coming to hand you a note. You get to choose.
   

5. You are allowed to build a life that looks nothing like the one you left.
   That’s the whole point.
   

What’s Possible for You?

If Black Women Leave Sooner gave us language for letting go, this chapter is about what’s waiting on the other side.

You don’t have to work across continents. But you do deserve a life that feels free, aligned, and alive.

So let me ask you:

If you made a Bold Move today or tomorrow, where might you be a year from now?
And better yet—
What’s stopping you from finding out?

🧭 Want to design your own freedom lifestyle?
Join the Beyond Borders newsletter for weekly reflections on travel, transformation, and liberation.