We recently connected with Patricia Velloza and have shared our conversation below.

Patricia, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

There were a lot of moments in my life when I knew that I didn’t want to be stuck in the system and part of your normal 9 to 5 matrix. It’s something that I’ve known since I was in elementary school actually and had been fighting it for a long time, especially having become a seasonal worker at age 17 lifeguarding summers for the parks department gave me lots of freedom to have a pretty serious and really great job Without having to commit to a full year of work. However, obviously, I fell into adulthood and having bills and serious life financial obligations, when I was buying my home at age 25 I needed proof of a steady income and a seasonal job and a few other jobs that I quit every year didn’t look good on paper. So I picked up what I like to call a “real adult job” AKA a salary 9 – 5 in Case Management; which is basically Social Work. This was different from my seasonal work and also different from my other jobs as a caretaker for people with special needs or a swim coach. With my case management job, I was still working with individuals with disabilities, which is one of my passions in life, however, it seemed way more serious and better pay while still helping people. It took me almost 2 years of working that job before I realized that with a broken system, no matter how dedicated I was to helping my clients there was a certain level that would make it impossible to help everybody in the way that they needed. That job made me lose a lot of hope; similar to how I felt after I was in college and originally wanted to become a teacher, and then went into doing my fieldwork and started to realize how complicated the system was, and how truly difficult the DOE was designed for teachers to teach aside from the actual material, taking away teachers creative, freedom, and having them stick to a very strict curriculum – was something that I realized I wouldn’t be able to do and didn’t agree with, so I changed majors. With my case management career I had a similar defining moment when I realized I was completely helpless in truly helping my clients. With the system designed against them in so many ways I was actually helpless and in many ways my agency and countless other agencies are committing unofficial insurance fraud thousands of times a day pretending they can help people in impossible ways. An example of this would be, the housing crisis in New York City paired with a social worker. I had a client living in NYCHA housing that I had been working with for about a year. Not only were the children of the house special needs, but the home and entire building was completely infested with Black mold. I know this because I made several home visits and not only did I inspect the home and make several reports on the issue, but I also witnessed and observed the hallways and staircases of this building and countless other NYCHA buildings all with the exact same issue. The problem with this specific case was that the children of the home had developed not only a mold allergy, but also mold poisoning (according to their doctor) and after years of reports being made the only thing that the city was able to do was paint the home multiple times with mold proof paint. After a year of fighting and proving mold poisoning, the only thing that was offered was the possibility to move into another Apartment within the same building with no timeframe of when that might happen just in the event that an apartment would open up, they would move them. Not only does this not solve the problem at all because the building is infested with mold, but put hundreds of people living in these buildings at a continued risk. It was at that point that I realized I could no longer work in this field because every single time I filed a report or pretended like I was going to help that family – insurance was being billed, each phone call and each report and each check up, all on an endless loop of lies and fake hope for a family in need. I realized that I was doing exactly what I had tried my whole entire life to avoid and I was a part of something that I completely didn’t agree with or believe in. After that realization I refused to partake in it anymore. My work ethic drastically dropped, I stopped lying to my clients and started looking online for affordable trainings in Thailand. About 2 months later I quit that job, said my goodbyes and gave my clients the best advice I could give them with the information that I knew. I found a friend to rent my apartment when I was away and made the most of my savings with the intention to live in Thailand for 4 months doing a yoga teacher training, relaxing and enjoying myself then planned come back to the US and work as a yoga teacher. However, Thailand was way more than I had ever imagined and things didn’t exactly go as planned after my teacher training, but actually way better. I learned that my seasonal lifeguarding job is actually the only thing that I really needed and wanted from NYC. I learned that I am a master at budgeting and I realized that I could live my life in a way that was still helping people and meaningful but without the stress and struggles of the typical New Yorker. I realized I could live most my life in paradise, traveling and have been doing so on and off ever since that trip in January 2020.

This was also very similar to a story from 2016 that I’ll keep short – I had been working as a swim coach for my old college at that point going on 2 years. I was promised a raise the next year and upon the new season – I did not receive my raise. After speaking to the new hire assistant coach, I found out that this new male coach was actually making more money than me and received the raise I was promised while I had years more experience than him and had also already been working for the college for an entire year before him. After speaking with the department manager, he told me that the raise wasn’t in the budget. When I asked him why the new hire was receiving more than me he began to stutter and said that he didn’t realize and he would look into it. I immediately quit the next day as I knew and felt blatant sexism. By chance, 2 of my friends were going on vacation to Thailand two days later. I decided that since I was now unemployed, I would go on this vacation with them. So I literally quit the job and booked the ticket the next day and then the very next day flew to Thailand on vacation for two weeks and absolutely fell in love with the country on that trip in 2016. I told myself that I would definitely need to return for a longer trip because I loved it so much. Little did I know that something similar would happen years later in 2019 forcing me to quit an unethical job again, but it does make me feel deeply that everything happens for a reason.

Patricia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Something that I would love for people to know about me is that I don’t really identify with any of the industries I’ve been a part of. My background is pretty diverse, mostly working with the disabled and special needs population and the swim and lifeguarding world which are pretty different. I have done many trainings for yoga, aerial yoga, trauma release and am attuned to the third level of Reiki masters. My original intention when taking all these trainings was to become an aerial or vinyassa yoga teacher and teach or offer reiki and help people in that way, but after doing all of these trainings and trying to incorporate it into my New York lifestyle I’ve learned that I don’t really care to put so much energy into something that is so competitive and low reward in NYC. I prefer for things to come to me organically, for example, If I meet somebody or if a friend recommends me to someone that is having a particular issue in their life and think they might benefit from yoga or reiki then I would love to take them on as a client. Im also more interested in short term projects like retreats or short term sessions since I travel so much and can’t commit to one place for more than a few months. After spending so much time in Thailand and completing so many trainings which I have been so blessed to have learned so much over the past few years I’ve also been very focused on how I can directly help and support the community here. So now my main focus and goal is fundraising for the disabled population in Thailand, specifically in Trang, where I used to be an English teacher. This Providence of Thailand is so beautiful and really one of my favorite places in the world. However, in all of Thailand, the disabled population only receives one monthly check of 500Bhat per disabled individual. Which is only about US$15 and nowhere near enough for a healthy lifestyle, especially for someone with a disability, sanitary products alone will cost that much for one month leaving people prone to infections and an overall lower standard of living. During Covid, I moved to Trang and became an English teacher where I met a lot of individuals with disabilities and we developed the “Trang wheelchair society” which has been a fundraiser/charity that I have been working on ever since. This group we formed by collecting donations from the US and friends abroad and in Thailand and spend the money mostly on sanitary products and wheelchairs for less fortunate people with disabilities in the providence. It’s been incredible experiencing witnessing how far only a few hundred dollars can drastically change lives of so many people, for example someone that has never had a wheelchair and is now able to get around freely without the help family member just because of a few peoples small donations. The reason I’m focusing on my energy on this fundraiser is not only because the Trang wheelchair society has become very close friends of mine, but also because there is an ongoing need for funding since sanitary products are something that people with disabilities need and use daily, and without them can cause serious infection, illness, and of course mental health issues. if any readers are at all interested in learning more about us, they could check us out at @Trang.wheelchair.Society on Instagram and currently the website is down since I haven’t received enough donations to keep the domain for another year. But we are usually at trangwheechairsociety.org.
I also love Working with this group because it is a very direct way of helping people in a very drastic way and it’s very obvious and clear to see how big a difference Small donations can make. After living in Thailand for so long as a foreigner i feel the need to support the community in the best way that I can and right now this is my main passion and focus.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

A Time I had to pivot my career was making the decision to keep travling and to quit my year-round overnight job as a caretaker for adults with disabilities that I had been doing for 10 years at the time. It was a super difficult decision because I loved my clients like family and was able to change my schedule seasonally to work with my very busy summer schedule, and could go back to working more during the winter, but once I had started traveling during the winter, I began taking absence leaves. However, it got to point where even though the manager at my location was OK with it, the CEO of the company said it went against policy to take another absent leave without working 12 months in a row and so I was faced with a difficult decision to either take a year off from traveling and keep my job or to quit and continue my fundraising, training and traveling passions. I decided that if I quit, I would still be able to visit my clients and be a part of their lives and that if I didn’t quit, I would probably fall into another seasonal depression, and more importantly – I wouldn’t have been able to take the aerial yoga teacher training that I had planned, which at the time was incredibly important to me (and an investment) as well as not being able to work again with the Trang Wheelchair Society . So I made the decision that financially and realistically it wasn’t worth it to keep the job.
Ultimately, this pivot was for the better because keeping that job had caused me physical stress as it was only paying minimum wage and required incredibly long hours: for example, my shift was evening into overnight into the morning and the lack sleep was incredibly tolling on the body; but when you work with a group of people for a long time they become like a family to you and it’s really hard to break away from that, especially people with disabilities that need and love you. However, I don’t regret this decision at all as I still visit these clients whenever I’m in New York and still consider going back to work for the agency again in the right timing.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Something I had to unlearn was the idea that even tho I had studied or invested in or spent a lot of time on something – it doesn’t mean that I need to continue it. It’s perfectly healthy and OK too try and grow towards new things. For example, when I originally did my yoga teacher training it was strictly for investment purposes with the intention to move back to New York and make money as yoga teacher. When I realized that that’s not what I wanted to do, I went back to Thailand and, completed reiki training 3 times with the intention of becoming a Reiki practitioner but after completing all of this training, I realized that that actually wasn’t the best fit for me either. I then went on to do my aerial yoga teacher training with the intention to go back to New York and teach since this is my favorite form of yoga, and I believe the most expensive/ highest pay, so I figured it was a really good investment idea since I could probably make more money doing it in NYC, however after that training and seeing how competitive it is in NYC I became more passionate about spending more time in Thailand and less time in New York. At this point i have a love for teaching yoga, and Reiki still; however it is not my main focus and I don’t want it to tie me to one place. I am also still looking for more ways to express my wide field of knowledge. Unlearning the idea that my studies and training are all just an investment but rather a way for me to grow individually as a person was very important for me and I think really hard for a lot of people to understand. Still today so many friends ask me why I am not working teaching yoga in New York City, where I could be making a pretty good living if I had truly invested time and energy into it. But the reality is, I don’t want to or need to do that at this time. I still love to teach but prefer my clients and teaching opportunities to come organically while still allowing me to avoid working for agencies or on strict schedules, which is hard to avoid in New York. That being said, I am extremely open to seasonal work in NYC or working for short term like for a retreat or something that is only several months and would still give me the freedom to travel gain new experiences and work with the Trang Wheelchair Society which is my priority for now. I will be returning to NYC in May for the summer and most of autumn so I will be accepting short term clients for anyone interested in home or parks sessions for yoga, reiki and swim lessons.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Trangwheelchairsociety.org
• Instagram: @trang.wheelchair.society / @patricia.militia
• Other: 2 Instagram accounts:

  @Patricia.militia for personal / travel and yoga inquiry

  @trang.wheelchair.society for charity and fundraising

Image Credits

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