About The In-Between

What’s life like when you can’t shake your status as an outsider but still kind of belong? One thing’s for certain: you still have to go through the human experience along with all the other beautiful bozos out there.

The In-Between is about simultaneously fitting in and not fitting in at all — the messiness of playing for two teams. It’s about the exploration of life, love, and making a home for oneself as a long-term immigrant; it’s about trying to bring together the old and the new, which is also old, just not my old.

It’s about the space between our internal lives and how they fit into the great big world out there.

My Story

I arrived in Mexico from Texas via a college exchange program in Indiana at 20 years old, ready for the great adventure of my year abroad. My Spanish at the beginning was awful – it would take me a full 10 seconds to get out a three-to-four-word sentence, barely intelligible once out. After some intensive courses and extended homestays (and lots of runs to the bathroom for short bouts of frustrated crying…grit ain’t free, people!), I finally managed to get the hang of it. That was the beginning of finally coming to live in this magical new (to me) world.

Since then, I’ve worked as a teacher both in-person and online, learned to navigate Mexican roads, gotten married, had a kid, gotten divorced, and started a new career as a writer and translator. I’ve painted and decorated new living spaces, had a few pets, and eaten a lot of tacos. In short, I’ve settled here.

I’m 43 now, and the love affair hasn’t ended. While I’ll likely never be mistaken for a Mexican myself, I have nonetheless been embraced, nurtured, and loved by the beauty of this country, its people, and its culture. Mexico is home, and I’m now one of a handful of obviously-adopted and fiercely loyal kids.

Over the past several years, I’ve been writing about Mexico from various angles both in my blog (from which I’ve moved past posts over), through a column with Mexico News Daily, and through several posts as the Sirena Tejana on expatsinmexico.com.

With this newsletter, I want to go beyond the standard “Expat in Mexico” story. Lots of things are about that, but lots of things have nothing to do with that, either.

So thanks for subscribing. I’m excited to keep writing and honored that people want to read what I have to say. Truth be told, there are a lot more passions where this came from, and it’s very likely that I’ll try to squeeze them into this space, too. (I hope y’all like short stories and decor pics).

Thanks for coming along on this ride. Really.

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Here’s my email, just in case you want to write me: devries.sarah@gmail.com