I Didn't Start Knowing The Way. I Built It By Restarting Many Times.

I graduated in Physical Education, Sports and Recreation from Universidad de Carabobo in Venezuela in 2011. I had already been working as an educator since 2010, at a bilingual school — without speaking English, which is why I never qualified for a better salary.

At the end of 2014 we moved to the United States: my husband, my two older children and I. We landed in Florida with no job and very low pay, and I couldn't work because my youngest had no school available. On December 31 of that year we relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, where my sister and her husband welcomed us.

That's where what I now call my threshold crossing began. My first job in the United States was waiting tables, next to my husband, at a Mexican restaurant — something neither of us had ever done. After that I cleaned houses and cared for babies who weren't mine. I studied for and passed a Personal Trainer certification entirely in English: the first big break in the belief I had about myself.

In 2016 my third child was born, prematurely. We spent a month with him in the hospital. That same year I landed my first formal job with an interview in English — on the floor of a YMCA gym. Then I entered the school system through the humblest door possible: the cafeteria, as a food service assistant. Weeks later, just two years after arriving without speaking English, I got in as a Spanish teacher in the Shelby County public school system.

“Educator, Latina, woman, mom… impossible.” — that's what I thought in 2019, when I started looking at technology.

For two full years I went in and out of that cycle: I'd learn a little HTML and CSS, doubt myself, stop, and try again months later. What finally broke it wasn't feeling less afraid — it was a weekend as a volunteer at GiveCamp Memphis, in February 2021, building a website for a nonprofit. I ended up leading that team. It was the first real proof that it was possible.

In April 2021 I joined a Full Stack coding bootcamp — without leaving my full-time teaching job or stopping caring for my three children. For six months I slept from 1am to 5am: I studied and built projects before and after teaching. At the end of September 2021 I landed my first remote job as a Software Engineer, without a formal tech degree.

In 2025, the immigration situation in the United States became very difficult for my family. We decided to return to Venezuela. I resigned from my remote job — the company couldn't employ people outside the US — and in July 2025 we arrived in a new city to start over: no steady job, only my own clients.

Today, a year later, I'm still restarting: I work on implementing and improving processes, build applications and systems, help schools and entrepreneurs open their virtual school, support a foundation as its technology director, and I'm building this community. Every restart left me a tool. Together, they became a method: NEXT YOU™.