Dubai; and the Importance of Saying Yes.

I've very much enjoyed telling people about my new job opportunity with Global Village Dubai. It all came about so quickly, I'm less than two weeks from boarding a plane and starting this new adventure. It still scarcely seems real. How did I manage to get such an opportunity? That's my favorite part.

I answered a Facebook post.

Truly. It all started with Facebook. A member of the current SM team posted on Facebook about a need for a stage manager, and in the serendipitous world we live in, this man also happened to be friends with a close professional contact of mine. My contact sent me the post, encouraging me to check it out and drop his name. I wrote to this stage manager asking for more info, I received a request for my resume and was told to expect to be contacted in a few days.

Not quite a week later, I received a request for my Skype info and thanks to the 8-hour time difference and my bad habit of late nights, I had my first interview at 1:15 am with maybe 5 minutes of prior warning.

36 hours later, I had an offer. I accepted. In less than a month, I would be flying to Dubai.

Following my acceptance of the job, I sat in my living room alone at just past 1am hopelessly giggling. This felt too much like a movie to be real. In what world would Facebook lead to my dropping everything; my apartment lease, my four part-time jobs, my neighborhood, and routine, to move halfway around the globe? And not long after I'd made the decision that I would no longer be a stage manager?

This is not the first time I've felt as though the universe was laughing at me and my attempts to plan and control my life (control issues, I have them...). 'Oh? You've mapped out the next 6 months in detail and with laid out steps and achievable goals? Color-coordinated and everything? Well. Bet you didn't see this coming!'

But I've learned. I've learned to say yes and see where it takes me. In the past, it's taken me to rooftops, new towns, new jobs, new friends, and bizarre stories and adventures that I still barely believe. I've driven TV stars to emergency rooms, cooked hors-d'oeuvres for well-known playwrights and actors, crawled through vents and onto roofs dressed for board meetings, climbed ladders in heels, and chased ambulances in a pencil skirt. I've teased a stranger for his ripped jeans at a champagne toast and was then offered lunch at Sardi's to discuss producing in NYC. I met the "other Kate McCombs" and gained an amazing friend through Twitter, coffees, and Skype. I even briefly met Tina Fey as she scarfed down a slice of pizza. Saying "Yes" and not listening to my social anxiety or fear became my superpower at age 24. It's taken me down some amazing roads and continues to keep life from ever being boring.

This superpower is about to take me the furthest I've ever been from home, for the longest time I'll have ever spent out of the country. It's going to take me down a life-changing experience. I don't know what my life will look like come April. I'm excited to find out.

I've promised to keep up a written log of adventures and stories, or "proof of life" as my old college mentor said. At least once a week for the next six months, I'll be telling stories, posting pictures, and remaining in awe of how I got here.

'Till then, I have packing to do.

xoxo