The Secret She Knows
Mya Pearle
Meet our Marisol Lorena Lema, journalist of Argentina.
This article about Marisol could have had a few titles. Ideas I tossed around were “Loneliness finally has a Cure” and “How Travelling Leads to Love” or even “Meet the Real Life FRIENDS Stars”.
But, I titled it “The Secret She Knows” because, by the end of this article, you will understand there is no doubt that Marisol has figured out a powerful secret of life.
Marisol is a journalist, and she is our main content creator here at Ralia Retreats. We heard about this amazing woman from our Costa Rican partner, Dania Fallas.
We could not have found a more perfect person to speak on behalf of Ralia Retreats as it evolves. Marisol is so wise and so traveled as you will soon learn.
And, yes, she resides in Argentina. Her country is an important part of this story.
When asked about her beloved Argentina, Marisol shares: “I feel this strike on my chest when I hear tango music playing in the street that makes me think it would be very difficult to live somewhere else.”
Argentina’s story is its people. They’ve had a difficult history where stability in the economy has not been given. The truth is there has been economic crisis after crisis —those who have never known that reality would need a deeper lesson to understand.
Marisol understands the reality of the crisis all too well.
She grew up in Buenos Aires, and she lives through the uncertainty of it all every day. She could have easily become a victim and kept herself small in her large city, yet Marisol succeeded in attaining a top education, she learned English and launched into her career with a journalism degree that would take her very far.
She had early career success but “life can change very quickly", she says. Her father passed suddenly at the age of 56 and she made the brave decision to quit the job she wasn’t entirely happy with and live life fully, something she feels her dad would have loved for her.
Brave is the word for Marisol. Some people spend their entire life stuck in a job or a business they cannot see their way out of, yet dreaming quietly of another life.
Bravery brought Marisol to travel.
She was 25. New York, Berlin, then Paris. Her sister worked for United Airlines which made it easy for her to jet around and see some of our amazing world. Before she knew it she landed back in the storied New York City thanks to a fated stand-by call for Buenos Aires or New York —she was clearly being led there for a reason.
Marisol’s life became real life season of FRIENDS. Marisol’s season goes something like this…
Marisol in New York City.
Episode one.
Marisol adventures in New York for pleasure. She loves chocolate mousse. Perhaps it is her background studying as a Chef? She finds a small cafe, probably not dissimilar to the vibe of the one made up for TV. Marisol is a foodie and she orders chocolate mousse from the cafe menu. Kudos to the pastry chef as this chocolate mousse was memorable.
Fast forward to episode two.
Marisol returns to the same cafe dreaming of chocolate mousse. A young aspiring actor working as a waiter greets her. Desire must be in the air as he is so struck by Marisol that he asks his manager to invite her out to his play after his shift. The shy man would eventually win Marisol’s heart and they would start a distance relationship with her in Argentina and him in New York City.
Episode three
Marisol is back in her important job in Congress in Argentina continuing her love long distance. But, she can’t get New York out of her mind. There was her new love and the fact that people were selling Argentinian empanadas in Times Square for $6. She thought: “I could do that, I could make empanadas!”. Her love of cooking and her desire to make a go of it with her boyfriend had her leaving her stable job for the hustle and fun of New York City.
Episodes four and on are still being redacted, but they are sure to entertain you much more as you get to know Marisol!
If you didn’t guess, her shy waiter is now her husband. The fated couple eventually moved to Buenos Aires and set up life in her birthright city.
Marisol was now surrounded by her two great loves: Argentina and her husband!
Back in Argentina, Marisol dove into work. She is a journalist and found her career moving along nicely with jobs for Congress and companies like Microsoft. But, during the pandemic, she disengaged from her corporate job as she felt the effects of burnout. She was thrilled when she landed her dream job: the editor of a newspaper.
“And I was like, I don't care. I even took less money. I thought: I'm going to go for it! I'm taking this experience I've been wanting to have. It ended up being the worst job of my life. Coming from a person who cleaned bathrooms at hostels, that is saying something!”
Marisol was working 16-hour days, 6 am to 11 pm non-stop. The job was seriously counter to Argentinian values of free time and celebrating leisure sports like football! She quickly burnt out too, so continuing this path of self-destruction was not an option.
“I think sometimes the most important thing you can do is choose you. Like, the You, You! Not the image that you created or what people thought about you or what you in your 20’s thought you had to be, but YOU, the person that you go to sleep with every day.”
And that is how Marisol came to Ralia Retreats.
She loves that we are breaking down those harmful work habits that were normalized by previous generations.
“I like to work in a more healthy way and treat people better. It’s my new way of changing the world: BEING NICE.”
Environmental issues worry Marisol the most. She thinks about being a mom and what it would mean in our world today. She wants to make an impact and make more people conscious of their impact.
In the same breath, she says: “I also want to focus on enjoying the time I have in this world, that is not much, and we also have no guarantees of how much it is going to be. So I always try to enjoy every day a little bit. One of my goals for this year is to enjoy my life a little more. So one day, maybe I go next to the river and work from there. I worry so much. I am a person that worries. And so my goal is also to worry less, you know, just try to be a better human being for everybody else. And enjoy myself. I feel like I have an inner voice and it's like, ‘what about me?’, and I've been listening to that voice a lot more lately.”
You will be glad she did.
Marisol’s journalistic secret is simple and effective: she listens and sees into the heart of the human story. And she is the reason why Ralia Retreats has a prolific voice. Our thoughtful Instagram posts and LinkedIn content, as well as many of our blogs, speak to people at another level thanks to Marisol.
Marisol in Nicaragua.
Marisol captures people’s essence in such a way that has lasting impact. She loves people. She tells a story of a Guatemalan woman whom she met one day during her travels. She was playing music for money. This woman was staying at the same hotel as Marisol.
“We were talking and she told me that she was a hermaphrodite. She was a she but she had both genitals. She told me about her struggles growing up”.
“And there she was, you know, playing guitar for some coins and telling me all her struggles. And I wrote about her a few months later when I got back”.
“I think sometimes people really just need to speak and sometimes you just change somebody's day by being able to listen. And maybe sometimes people need a hug. I think that is part of being nice, being able to take the time to listen to what other people have to tell us”, Marisol says.
“Loneliness. It's out there. And it's a very striking thing. It can be as striking as being poor, to be lonely”.
“I wrote about her and I think about her sometimes. And, you know, you learn when people tell you how they struggle and they survive. You learn from other people going through so many difficult situations”.
“I love talking with regular people. That's what I love. When I started traveling, I had this project where I would go in the street and ask people ‘what moves you?’. I wanted to know what made people get up every day. What gets you out of bed? And it was interesting. Some people answered: ‘Well, my wife does’. Some people said: ‘I am escaping from troubles at home’. I think that regular people, everybody, in fact, have a story to share”.
“I love to give those people a voice. Powerful people have a voice anyway. I like to listen to the people who don’t have a voice”.
Marisol has discovered the power of this simple truth. Everyone has a story to share and everyone deserves to be heard. It’s her secret and her gift. With every story, she brings us the wisdom of others and her own light to the world.
You can follow Marisol’s work for us on our social media accounts: @raliaretreats on Instagram and Ralia Retreats on LinkedIn. Also, you can read some of the articles she wrote for us:
Meet Mya Pearle, founder of Ralia Retreats
Meet Dania Fallas, the Chef that Will Feed Your Body and Soul
We Spoke to 4 Canadian Companies That Have a 4-Day Work Week
5 amazing rituals to bond remote teams
If you speak Spanish, you can read some more articles here:
Escenas de Guatemala: Hannah del lado de los vivos