welcome to liminal space

ttyl joy soldier

While the term “Joy Soldier” will always hold a special place in my heart, today I’m relaunching this newsletter under a new name. 

Welcome to liminal space. 

These past two years have brought enormous change. What began with me quitting my corporate job and bookended with my move to Spain has broken me open in a million and one ways.

Recently, you may have noticed that I’m writing things don’t feel very joy soldier-y. Less positive things. Less complete things. Transitions. Unravelings. New beginnings and new endings. 

Names are important. As such, this newsletter’s new name is an ode to the state in which I’ve been passing my time— liminality, or the uncomfortable state of being in transition. 

I soft launched this in my post last week, which I was delighted to see resonated with so many of you. 

Below I go into great detail about this transition.

Here are 5 highlights:

1. I’ve renamed this newsletter “liminal space” because it more accurately encompasses what I’m writing about (messy transitions, quitting, starting, doing nothing)

2. The weekly wins of the week is here to stay and will always be free for subscribers

3. My weekly essay is also here to stay and will be available for free for 7 days

4. All archived essays are available to paying subscribers. You can subscribe here!

5. Paid subscriptions go to funding my dreams (including opening a bed & breakfast and launching a non-alc beverage

In greater detail…

I’m Sarah Wood and I’m an expert quitter.

I’ve quit jobs, relationships, cities, ways of being. Most recently, I quit a job on Wall Street, living in New York, and drinking alcohol.

I'm also in the process of starting.

After blowing up my old life, sitting in the yuck of transition, and digging around trying to recover who I actually am, I'm starting anew in many ways.

I'm in the process of figuring out a new life in Spain, a relationship with the love of my life, and exploring several big ideas.

What can I, as a reader, expect from this newsletter? 

I will continue to write about the process of figuring things out. About moving and building a life in Spain. About falling in love and growing in relationship. About making adult friends, forgiving myself for my past self, tolerating uncertainty, diving into the unknown, tearing everything up and beginning again. 

Each week I’ll share an essay and end the week with a round-up of 10 wins of the week– celebrating the cool things that people I admire are doing. 

After one week, I will move my weekly essays into my archive. This archive of past essays will be available to paid subscribers.

If you’re unable to afford the paid subscriber rate, send me an email (no explanation needed) and I’ll add you to the premium plan. 

By paying for my newsletter, you directly fund my dreams to purchase a villa to start a bed and breakfast and launch a non-alcoholic beverage company.

Currently, I do not have plans to raise outside capital and am hoping to bootstrap these dreams alongside my job.

Why is this changing now? 

“Joy Soldier” was a term that gave me purpose when I was in an extremely dark time in my life. You can watch the TED talk where I talk about it here. Having the purpose of “being a joy soldier” gave my life meaning. 

With time, I’ve come to see that this personal purpose of trying to create healthier organizations was right in many ways, but wrong in others. Yes, I still believe there is transformational power in our one-to-one relationships and one person can change your life.

But I’ve come to see that the system I was participating in, which also came with obsessive workaholism, was not working.

Instead of trying to build a war chest of self-care rituals and morning routines to continue existing in that system, I decided that self-preservation was only possible if I left the entire thing itself. 

Which is exactly what I did. I packed up my bags and left.

Enter liminal space. 

Who is writing this newsletter?

Some of you have been on this mailing list before Joy Soldier even existed (shoutout to the Oats & Woes OGs!) Many of you likely have no idea who I am, having subscribed to this newsletter last week. However you came onto this mailing list, I’d love to reintroduce myself.

My name is Sarah and I’m twenty-six years old. I live in Barcelona, Spain. I was born in Minnesota and grew up in a small-town in Michigan.

I went to college at the University of Michigan and I lost myself. Over the course of four years, I forgot my dream to live abroad in Spain, to wear beautiful dresses everyday, and to be a writer. I graduated with a job in finance and a desire to be like everyone else. 

I forgot myself. 

Until I began to remember. Over the course of eight years I built up a life that was exactly what I thought I wanted and tore it all down in a matter of months.

Two years ago this November, I left my job on Wall Street. Three months later, I stopped drinking. Shortly after, I committed to being single for a year. Three months after that, I packed up my belongings and moved out of New York City to Barcelona, Spain. 

Last January, when many of you came across this newsletter, I wrote an article for The Cut about stopping drinking that went viral. 

The outpouring of responses I received and still receive demonstrated to me that there is a growing questioning about what we are all “supposed” to be doing and if it’s actually really serving any of us. 

If you are someone who has a quiet whisper in your gut that maybe you want to stop doing something,

if you are on the cusp of doing something you haven’t done yet,

if you are sitting in the gunk of an undefined period of transition,

I hope you find solace in this newsletter.

Welcome to liminal space. I hope it feels like home.