- When I was offered a dream job, I moved my family from the continent to the United States in Puerto Rico in 2015.
- On the island, we sometimes had no running water, fought to move and the items were expensive.
- Although we had trouble adapting, we loved island life and we did not regret this decision.
In 2015, I moved my family of four people from Pennsylvania to Puerto Rico to continue my dream job. Although I had lived on the island when I was young and I went on vacation there, I had never worked professionally or live there in adulthood.
When I accepted work as a service director in a Medtech company, I fell in love with the idea of hot weather and being near the beach all year round. In addition, work gave me an international experience, which I was looking for.
The thought of living, working and perhaps even retiring to Porto Rico motivated me the most. But the reality of island life was not what I expected.
An economy in difficulty has made everyday life costly
During one of my first days, an employee joked: “I was wondering if you knew what was going on on the island. Everyone left, but you took a job here.”
I did not know that people left the island for the American continent for better job opportunities. The decline was due to an economy in difficulty and an increase in the unemployment rate.
Since my business paid for everything at the beginning – including food while we were in a hotel – I did not notice how expensive everyday items were. It was until I had to pay them out of my own pocket.
The work standards were different on the island
Having worked most of my career on the American continent, I used to live life according to a strict schedule. The meetings started when they were supposed to do so and ended at the appropriate time.
But there was a more lax culture around the speed to my new job. Meetings that did not start or ended in time were almost a daily frustration of work.
On several occasions, trying to impose my style of management of the United States, I would call an employee who was late at a meeting but who could not reach them, only so that they walk in 15 minutes of Delay with Starbucks in hand.
Water shortage was a harsh reality
When my family and I moved into our rented house in Cataño, we were surprised to see that there was no running water.
Puerto Rico was in a drought for the first time in almost two decades. The water was rationed and we had to keep it during the days when the water was extinguished.
I used to have access to the water when I needed on the continent, so it was a fight for my family to adapt. In the United States, we have never had the local rationing water of the Department of Water because of drought.
Moving around the island was a challenge
I have often driven around the island. For a distance that would generally take me an hour in the United States, even with a little traffic, in Puerto Rico, it took 30 to 45 minutes more.
Driving on the island’s road system was nothing like my normal training on the I-76 in Pennsylvania, which extends from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. The only thing that would stop in Pennsylvania was the need to obtain gas – not a traffic light in a small town in the middle of the highway.
In the United States, I was used to highways clearly marked with white lines. This was not always the case in Puerto Rico.
In addition, traffic standards are not the same. In Puerto Rico, it is common for drivers to stop at a red light, look in both directions and simply continue. On an occasion, while I was waiting for a red light with my family, another driver behind me came out of his car to tell me to make the red light light. When I refused, he just driven around me.
Puerto Rico is always a paradise to enjoy
Despite my challenges living in Puerto Rico, we appreciated hot weather, beaches, tourist visits and food.
We took the Ferry of Cataño on the other side of the bay at Old San Juan to do tourism. With the family, we went to the beach on Isla Verde, which was only 30 minutes from us and one of the most beautiful beaches on the island. Going down a little further from Isla Verde beach, we have often stopped at kiosks on the side of the highway to buy many popular food dishes from the island.
After a little over a year, we finally returned to the continent when I won another job. My stay in Porto Rico was memorable, and I do not regret it.
But if I had to start again, I would look for the island more to make sure that I was ready for move and better plan to adapt to the difference between living on an island and the American continent. I absolutely assumed that since Puerto Rico is part of the United States, infrastructure and lifestyles would be the same, but this was not the case.
businessinsider
