How #LiveTheVibe™ Was Born

My husband, Nick, and I moved to Cocoa Beach, Florida in July 2017 when he accepted a position as a Rocket Engine Technician at SpaceX. Overcome with giddiness and excitement, we began planning our new life together in the quaint beach town known for the GOAT, Kelly Slater. However, the harsh reality of what was supposed to be our “living the dream” moment quickly became apparent.

After years of dreaming and talking about how we wanted to move to the beach one day, we were finally here! The stars aligned and somehow, we found ourselves in a condo across the street from the coolest beach access in town; 16^th Street South. Certainly, I’m oversimplifying the matter. There was a lot of hard work, sleepless nights, heavy lifting, and more than 1500 miles of back & forth trips between Tampa and Cocoa Beach with all the “memorable experiences” of moving to go along with it.

Nick hit the ground running at SpaceX grinding it out on the night shift for 60+ hour weeks, as all newbies do, while I happily unpacked our gear and began settling in to our new dream. It wasn’t long until we realized that our dream had always included each other, but we were now living separate lives on different shifts trying to navigate our new work and home environments. We were both alone, tired, and desperate to make the best of it.

Although I’ve always been a positive person, finding the silver lining in the clouds, and always seeking lessons from unexpected or negative experiences, I still found myself sinking into a dark place because life wasn’t what we envisioned. I missed being “us”. Exploring our new town together and going on day trips like we used to wasn’t going to happen…not for a long while.

One day, while sitting at my desk in the corner of my home office working my “real” job and complaining in my head about not being able to do one thing or another, it hit me like a bolt of lightning! You have to live the vibe, Jamie! Stop this “woe is me” crap and look around! You are working from home…in your beach house! You can see the ocean right now! What the hell is wrong with you?

That very moment I wrote, “#LiveTheVibe” on my whiteboard so I could glance up at it every time I felt a negative thought enter my head. It became my mantra. I started tagging it on all the sunrise photos I posted on Facebook and added my favorite positive quotes. It caught on.

Suddenly, I was looking for the positives in our situation, and there were a lot. As Steve Harvey said, “Gratitude erases negativity.” I began expressing gratitude for all the things I was complaining about. “Thank you, Universe, for the time apart so I can focus on learning something new.” I began shifting my schedule so we could spend more time together. When Nick would get home at 3:30am, he was wound up from working and didn’t want to go straight to sleep, so I hit the hay early and set the alarm for 3am so I could get up and go to the beach with him when he got home.

I cherish those moments today; early morning hours staring at the star-filled sky, seeing shooting stars, or even watching the very rockets take off that Nick helped build. It took adjustments and living a bit differently than the typical couple, and slowly but surely, we figured out how to make opposite schedules work.

The part that really ties it all together is the vision I saw in my head when the lightning bolt struck. I saw the people of Cocoa Beach. I saw surfers old and new; I saw artist creating, I saw welcoming smiles, I saw the vibe all around me. I saw people living their life how they wanted. They were themselves, they were unique, and they were raising the vibrations all around.

That’s what living the vibe is all about. Finding your authentic self and letting it shine for all to enjoy, spreading positivity to everyone you meet, and giving back to your community however you can.

What’s your vibe?