Welcome back. And if you’re new here — hi, I’m Raquel Sands. Welcome to A Day in the Life, a series I didn’t plan so much as stumble into. It started about a year ago, or maybe longer, depending on how you count these things, and it evolved the way most true things do: organically, without a content calendar or a launch strategy, just a desire to be honest and share what it actually looks and feels like to pivot in work, in business, in meaning-making, in income. To live out sovereignty — whatever that word holds — across every season.

So, here’s where I am now.

From Library Shelves to Cacao Blends: The Full Arc

I’ve been a professional job-offer-hopper since, officially, 2008 — my first part-time job at a library. Before that, I was helping my dad run his business in middle school, which would put us somewhere around 2005. Unofficial secretary.

Since 2008, I’ve been a graphic designer, a writer and editor, a website designer, a dog walker, a yoga teacher, a front desk person at a physical therapy clinic, and a yoga studio manager.

I’ve worked for nonprofits, for-profits, and for the government. Most recently, for the past few years, I’ve been primarily a contractor.

A contractor, here in the US, can be treated as a W-2 employee but within a defined contract window — usually a year, with the possibility of extension or full employment.

A consultant operates differently, often on a 1099 (in Virginia, it’s typically an 888 form), more like a freelancer, project-based, without the same benefits structure. I’ve been both.

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