🏡 What Led Me to Move Abroad: Letting Go, Starting Fresh, and Following Alignment

There’s a moment in every big life transition where you realize: I’m not going back.
For me, that moment came in an empty house in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Last summer, I was laying the groundwork for something entirely new—my business, Cardinal People & Culture, a space where I could offer intuitive career coaching and relocation guidance rooted in purpose, identity, and place. At the same time, a quiet shift started unfolding in the background: my tenants in Dallas let me know they wouldn’t be renewing their lease.

Nine years earlier, I had purchased that Dallas condo, thinking it would be a foundation—an anchor. But the truth was, I’d already decided I wasn’t going back. I knew, deep in my bones, that Dallas was no longer home. And Tulsa, where I was living at the time, wasn’t it either.

A Bigger Vision Was Taking Shape

That decision—to sell my home—wasn’t just about real estate. It was about energetically releasing the past and stepping into my future. Selling my condo gave me access to the equity I’d built over nearly a decade, which translated to roughly a year’s worth of my former corporate recruiting salary. That was my bridge—the financial support I needed to fund my move and give my business room to grow.

I was no longer building a life around where a job took me. I was building a life that fit me—fully and intentionally.

The Search for Home (and a Spark from a Concert)

Even with my business in motion and my home sold, I still wasn’t sure where I’d land. I considered cities across the U.S., but none of them truly resonated. Every possibility felt like a compromise.

Then, during a casual conversation at a concert, someone mentioned Den Haag (The Hague), a city in the Netherlands I had loved from a past visit. Something clicked. It reminded me that I now had the freedom to think globally. With no corporate office tying me down and no mortgage keeping me anchored, I could actually choose a new continent—a new reality.

Letting Go to Let In

That conversation planted the seed. I didn’t have all the answers yet, but I did have clarity:

• I wasn’t going back to the life I left.

• I was choosing to build something new, on my own terms.

• And somewhere in the world, there was a home waiting for me—one I hadn’t met yet.

Sometimes we wait for certainty before we act. But in this case, I acted with only one truth: that staying would be out of alignment—and leaving was a chance to return to myself.