January 1986, before turning 21, I started my professional life in Canal 10, a tv station in Quito, Ecuador. In the following two decades I worked step by step and with genuine passion, from midday anchor and sorting the international cables to reporting the local city news, main journalism, international envoy, regional director and eventually National News Director. I gained international experience working in Bolivia and Paraguay; I was Televisa correspondent and made reports for CNN International. I wrote editorials in a national daily newspaper, and articles in magazines. I entered the Public Relations industry and built my own company, an intellectually and financially fulfilling experience entirely in its own right.

In 2006 I was ready for a sharp turn again: I left my career behind and moved with my two little kids to Rio de Janeiro, to share a new life with the man who is my husband today.

It was a dive from an extremely full-time work to an ocean of time in which I swam without any path nor hurry; I know I was very lucky. I was then and still am today, fully directed by the needs and happiness of my now three sons. But I also took the opportunity to follow old passions and earned a degree in History. With Hendrik, my husband, we share among our many common interests the curiosity for travel, exploring the planet, and learning about cultures past and present. Today I am as restless as ever: every day, I discover a myriad of projects to pursue.

It is much easier to define ourselves by our professions. Who are you? Our rather automatic response is “I am a journalist;  an architect;  a nurse”. But if for whatever circumstance you cannot use that, who do you really are?

After these 15 years and reflecting on my life I find that the recurring constant in my life is movement. It’s is  my nature, I guess. I was born in Paraguay, I live my first decennium in Uruguay, my adolescence in Quito- Ecuador; studied in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands; married first to an Italian and live near Rome, la Paz-Bolivia and Guayaquil; remarried to a German and move to Rio de Janeiro, Berlin and Atlanta. My kids were born in 3 different countries; in my house we speak simultaneously 3 languages and we rarely spend more than 4 years in the same place.

My mind works much in the same itinerant way. At any moment, I have at least 4 projects going on in my head. I mostly succeed to complete my urgent priorities fast by giving them undistracted attention, while I’ve learnt to allow other projects to stew and take their time. Journalism is still at my core, so I find myself always wanting to tell what I see and discover. I sometimes still write for a newspaper, but at other times just for myself or for our family blog. I am also pursuing a larger history research project which gives me a tremendous sense of meaning and pleasure: I know it will come fully alive one day.

I still feel there is a bigger meaning waiting out there for my life. But for now, this is where I am, and it is good, and I am thankful.