Dear Ana Machado:

Welcome back. If I understand correctly, you are currently employed, and you are in school working toward a PhD, but you will have to change your plans, relocate, and take up your father’s freelance work as a wine producer, and your grandfather’s olive oil business.

That reads like a whole lot for you to do. I wonder if there are other younger members in your family who can take on some of these things left for you to do, and if this or that business can be sold for profit, if you prefer to not engage in it. I also wonder about your PhD studies and what you intended to use it for, if these plans will be postponed or put away.

In either case, I think that a 15 day to a month vacation in London or Paris, or elsewhere, a place and time where you can feel like you are a “28 freakin’ years old” is an excellent idea!

anita