1. The Spanish Teacher

A leap into the void

After more than fifteen years teaching at high schools in Menorca, I felt a restlessness begin to beat inside me, demanding a change. It was a silent call, constant yet relentless: something within me was urging me to challenge the familiar. So I decided to take a leap into the void, cross the pond, and step into a completely different reality.

A new education system, a different culture, a life full of unexpected challenges… All of that was waiting for me, and I knew it. But I also knew that the unknown was, paradoxically, what stirred my enthusiasm the most. What would I find on the other side? I had no answers, only the certainty that this would be a transformative journey.

The landing

On August 2, 2023, with my nerves on edge and my heart beating fast, I landed in Cincinnati, United States. A destination awaited me there that promised not only to teach me, but also to challenge me to teach: I would be a Spanish teacher at Newport Intermediate School, in northern Kentucky, right on the border with Ohio.

From the very first day, life began to feel like a movie. The classrooms, the hallways, the curious faces of new students and teachers…, every detail brought with it a mix of surprise, bewilderment, and learning. In those moments I realized that I had arrived not only in a new country, but also at a new version of myself, ready to be discovered and reinvented.

I had arrived not only in a new country, but also at a new version of myself,

The blog as a logbook

And so this blog was born, as a logbook that would capture every step of this journey. It wasn't just about recounting experiences, but about charting the map of a transformation. Leaving my comfort zone was the first step toward starting over. A stimulating challenge, complex and, at times, overwhelming. And yet, every day in this new land meant discovering not only different facets of the world, but also of myself.

What follows in these pages is a compendium of experiences: a humble testimony of how I wove together a new “Kentuckian” life. From the everyday to the extraordinary, each experience showed me a new way of seeing the world and, above all, a new way of being.

I invite you to join me on this journey, to be a witness and an accomplice to a leap into the void with no way back. Because what you learn by throwing yourself into the unknown transforms you forever.

what you learn by leaping into the void transforms you forever.