Life Is What You Make Of It

By Cheval John

I can say that life does not always go according to plan.

My goal was to graduate from college at 22 years old, be in a full time position and be able to be financially independent.

That plan did not work out as I expected.

When I first visited the United States mainland, I knew I had wanted to live here one day.

I was curious to know what it was like to live in the U.S. mainland and had great dreams that it was awesome.

When I had graduated high school 16 years ago, I knew that I was going to have the opportunity to live in Texas.

I was supposed to leave on July 15th.

However, the flight that was supposed to arrive in my native St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, had a delay and made an arrival late.

That delay caused me to miss my connecting flight from Miami to Houston.

I had the choice on going on that flight and spend the night in Miami before leaving for Houston the next morning.

I decided to spend one more night home before I made the move to Texas on July 16th.

When I finally arrived in Texas, I was excited for a new adventure.

I had no idea that I was going to start college at 22 years old and graduated with two college degrees at 27 years old and 28 years old, respectively.

Plus I did not know that I was going to be fluent in Spanish because I thought that I could not learn the language because I had struggled with the subject in high school.

Or that I would be struggling to find full time work because of the “Great Recession.”

I did not expect that 16 years later, I would have still be living in Texas, have a podcast, be an author of two books and a blogger.

Most of the time, I wonder if I did not move to the mainland, would I have finished university at the age of 22 and working at a full time workplace?

All I can say is that I made the choice to live in the U.S. mainland and I had been able to cover sporting events as a freelance writer and also be in the fourth largest city in the United States.

I have not achieved my goal of being financially independent yet, but I am on my way.

No matter if you feel that life did not go as you planned it, always have hope and believe that your detour in life will lead you to achieving your goals that will allow you to make the world a better place.

About Cheval John

Cheval John is the Founder and CEO of Vallano Media, LLC, a marketing agency which helps small to mid-sized businesses use social media correctly to build a loyal following and in the process become more profitable. Cheval is also the host of "What's The Word?" a podcast about finding out what inspires people to choose their respective careers and how social media impacted their lives and business. He is the author of two books including the Amazon Best-Seller, "8 Lessons Every Podcaster Needs To Learn." He has spoken at Social Media Week Lima in Ohio and at Social Media Day Houston 2017 about topics around live streaming and podcasting. Cheval has been featured in media outlets including Ebony Magazine, Social Media Today and Forbes. He was named a Houston Top 25 Social Media Power Influencer (2016 and 2017) and a Twitter Top 50 Influencer by Onalytica in 2018.

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