Life Outside the US

Finding Happi-ness as an Ex-pat

When I first decided to write the Happi Effect, I really wanted to tell my full story. Not just focus on my career in the THC and the beverage industry. But to share how I became an ex-pat in 2021 and launched Happi at the same time.

A funny thing happened every time I sat down to write about my life outside the U.S. I would get anxious. I would push it off. I would write about THC and tips and trends instead.

When we first landed in Nica during the middle of COVID, I felt like we had traveled to a different planet. My boys hadn't had a haircut in 10 months!

Over the last few weeks and months, I have had dozens of friends and colleagues reach out and ask me about ex-pat life. About why I moved to Nicaragua 4 years ago and what my experience has been like. How I make this lifestyle work with kids and a family. How I can run Happi from abroad while also traveling back and forth to the U.S.

When I founded Happi, I also founded my new life in Nicaragua.

There are plenty of days when I ask myself why on earth we moved here, where the unknowns of the elements are a daily crap shoot. There are very few paved roads where we live. The power goes out all the time. No consistent air conditioning. Wearing white is next to impossible with muddy or dusty roads, depending on the season. I laugh when people ask me about Amazon, dry cleaning or sushi rice, staples of my former life.

We settled into Nica life quickly and met many of our new neighbors. Pigs, monkeys, scorpions, stingrays. We embrace it all here.

My husband and our two sons have accepted that Nicaragua will not provide the same rhythm of life we knew in the United States. But we’ve learned that if we can look beyond the differences, this lifestyle truly pushes us to live in the moment.

We live in a coastal enclave on the Southwest Pacific Coast of Nicaragua, which is often referred to as the Emerald Coast. It is stunning, wild and quite rural. Life is both simple and complicated. There are things you can count on and things you can’t. Big, beautiful, blue ocean? Check. Farm animals in the road? Check. A variety of foods? Buzzer. Power and water? Not a given. Good weather? Well, hello global warming.

I always wondered if the sunsets would lose their luster. If the ocean would lose its charm. Four years into this move and I am grateful for the skies and the water every single day. Their beauty feels like a hint of magic.

When people ask me what it is like to live here, I need at least five minutes to explain. It definitely doesn’t feel like a dream every day. A friend told me the ex-pat honeymoon will wear off, and that’s true. Life in the U.S. can feel easier. But life here is far simpler. And that’s the difference.

Nicaragua truly feels like home now.

Why Nicaragua? It truly was a Happi COVID accident. We wanted to live on the coast and be closer to nature. The warm weather and culture here suits who my boys are as humans as much as it suits their dad and me. Seeing my kids horsing around on the basketball court with their local friends and speaking Spanish fills me with gratitude. As do our family surf sessions, when out in the water I get their undivided attention without phones or Snapchat. I can honestly say that I am living my most authentic life.

I get so many questions about this topic, so fire yours my way and I will do my best to answer them all.