When your cab journey gets very serious, very quickly
“But that sounds nice! No?” I asked, holding onto the handrail as the cab turned a corner.
I couldn’t see much of the driver’s face. One of the small glass windows was slid open, and through it, I looked at his eyes in the rearview mirror.
He glanced at me and shook his head.
“Nah,” he said, in his South London accent. “It’s pathetic.”…
15 Things I Learned From Moving Across An Ocean In My Thirties
Five years ago tomorrow, wildly in love and ready to leave London, I picked up my stuffed suitcase, and got on a plane, to move to Toronto.
While the romance didn’t last forever, we managed to spin our love into a best friendship (thank you, two years of couples therapy – worth every penny) and, as well as that, I’m left with profound, parental love for my ex’s kid, and unbridled devotion to this city, which feels absolutely like my home. I can’t imagine EVER wanting to leave.
So, in honour of my FIVE YEAR CANADAVERSARY, here are 15 things I learned:
(1) It’s hard. Like, really, really hard
When I was moving, so many people I told said, “You’re so brave!” and I would reply, “No I’m not! If I don’t like it, I’ll just come back!”. What I didn’t anticipate was that it would be really hard and I would still want to stay. About six months in, once the honeymoon period (“Wow! I really did leave all my problems in London!!!!”) wore off, I suddenly realised, “Oh. THIS is what they were talking about….”
(2) The hardness last about a total of two years, tapering at the end
From talking to a lot of other people, it seems this length of time is mostly universal. Putting this out there in case you’re thinking of moving somewhere.
(3) The things that you find hard aren’t the ones you’d expect to
Yes, I missed my mum and my friends, and change can be difficult. But what was hardest were the little things. Like knowing…
