Life

On Burning My Family Portrait

I ditched 95% of my life and never looked back.

Iva Ursano
6 min readOct 23, 2024

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Image created in Canva by me :)

2015 was the year that I completely recreated my entire existence. Every single thing about me went through an overhaul. Even my belongings. It was the year I bought a one-way ticket to Guatemala and never returned to Canada.

I had dreamed for years of packing everything in and moving to a warm climate. I used to joke all the time, “I wish I was rich so I could spend my winters somewhere it never snows, ever.”

Turns out I didn’t have to be rich for that.

The Costa Rica trip that changed my life

In May 2015, I went on a three-week volunteer mission trip and came back a totally different person. If you ever need a wake-up call on life, go volunteer with the less fortunate.

I’m serious. All your troubles will suddenly seem too few and far between (and frivolous).

When I returned, I was determined to do something like that again, but more permanently.

Fast-forward to October 2015, and I was off to Guatemala alone to live. I had no clue what the hell I was doing. All I knew was that my life in Canada was over.

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