Dobar dan!
Greetings from Croatia! My name is Melissa Randall, and I’m a user experience designer at Questar. I’ve been with the company for nearly two years, and most of my time has been spent working out of our home office in Minnesota. At the beginning of June, however, I made a huge leap into the unknown and transitioned to working remotely…from the other side of the globe!
A few months ago I was accepted into a program called Remote Year. It’s a company that facilitates travel and accommodations for “digital nomads” — basically, people who travel and can do their work from anywhere with reliable internet access. Over the course of the next year, I’ll be traveling with my new family of 50 other people all working, exploring, and living together.
My group is the 13th run by Remote Year, and is known as “Earhart” (all Remote Year groups are named after famous explorers; ours is the first group to have a woman explorer as our namesake). The diverse group consists of people with vastly different careers, ages, and backgrounds. Our itinerary will take us to cities in 10 different countries: Split, Croatia; Budapest, Hungary; Lisbon, Portugal; Hanoi, Vietnam; Chiang Mai, Thailand; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Cordoba, Argentina; Lima, Peru; Medellin, Colombia; Bogota, Colombia; and Mexico City, Mexico.
I’m currently in our first destination country, Croatia, and am adjusting to all of the new things that are colliding all at once. New cultures, customs, time zone (7 hours ahead of my team in Minnesota), language… even a new family as I get to know my fellow travelers. As I travel, I’m trying to focus on learning and blogging about design, photography, education, and philanthropy. But for now, I’m about to head out on a Croatian rite of passage — jumping off of an eight foot cliff into the ocean! Wish me luck! 🙂
