It took me 27 hours to get to my new home. 27 HOURS. Thats 18,764 km. Or 11659.40 miles seeing as i’m living in the UK now. Obviously making a decision to move this far away cannot be done overnight, as it’s not like you can just jump on a plane and go back home whenever you feel like it. Still been one of the best decisions I’ve made though, and i’ve learnt a ton already in the first 4 months of being here.
- Who your real friends are: I’m sure everyone who has moved across the world will agree with me on this one. It’s interesting who you hear from when your life completely changes. Not only did I move across the world, but I re-connected with my Dad who I hadn’t seen in 17 years. This is probably one of the biggest things that will ever happen to me in my life, and I still haven’y heard from people that I considered close friends. Yeah, everyone has stuff going on in there life, but it takes 2 minutes to send a quick message.
- Everything takes time: At home I lived with friends, had a full time job, spent the weekends being social and had a car which meant freedom. Here, I am living with family, I knew absolutely no one apart from them which meant no social life with people my own age, and the closest town is a 15 minute bus ride away which costs £6.30 return (thats about $13nzd!) I wasn’t used to this and didn’t realise the effect it would have on me. After getting a job a couple of weeks after moving here, and finally meeting people my own age, I eventually started spending Friday nights socialising, instead of staying at home watching Netflix. It just took time.
- Facetime will become your best friend: I don’t know where I would be without social media. Facebook, Snapchat and Facetime are all saviours when it comes to keeping in contact with your friends/family back home. Even if it’s a quick message to let them know you’re still alive, or an essay of gossip from the weekend it all adds up, and us travellers really appreciate it.
- You will have on and off days: I think i’m lucky, because I haven’t been too homesick since being here. Yeah some days I wake up and miss home. I miss the people, I miss being able to run up the mount everyday, I miss being able to cross the road to go for a swim at the beach and I miss my old house. And then other days I wake up and just think “Wow I am in ENGLAND. I completely changed my life, whereas everyone at home is stuck in the same old boring job doing the same thing everyday. I have travelled around Europe, and seen places I used to only dream of seeing” Whenever I am in London, I sometimes just stop and look around and think how cool it is here, and that people back home would probably love to trade places.
- Home is where the heart is: This one is pretty self explanatory. When I showed people from work a picture of Mount Maunganui, they were shocked that I chose to leave there, and live in Chelmsford instead. Quick side story: The other day at work, an old lady almost made me cry. She asked me if I was Australian (which i get asked atleast 5 times a day) She then asked if I had left all my family and friends behind, and when I said yes, she looked at me in awe, said that I am extremely brave and that she wishes she had done some travelling at my age, as she has not been anywhere. She then wished me luck with my future. I have had this conversation with other elderly people who always question my accent, and wonder why on earth I am in Chelmsford of all places. It always makes me feel proud of myself and is a small reminder that I made the right decision. Although Chelmsford (soon to be Surrey) is my temporary home, one day I’ll be back in Mount Maunganui.
redheadtraveller 