As we approach mid July, it will have been one whole year since we made the move to London. And oh boy, what an experience. I can honestly say that after an entire year, I am FINALLY starting to feel settled and at home.
I feel as though this move single handedly catapulted me into adulthood. Staying in your hometown is such a safe thing to do. You have all your family and friends to lean back on in case you need them. Moving to another country by yourself is something so exciting, exhilarating but so scary at the same time. And I don’t think we realised what a monumental this move was till we were in London.
I remember waking up on my first morning as an official resident of London and I felt so energized and excited. And the very next week, I felt so overwhelmed and was having the ‘omg was this a good idea???’. The furniture deliveries were all over the place, we kept getting confused on the smallest things that was different in the UK from Canada which made no logical sense to us, and of course, since I was taking a mini break from working, I generally started to feel a little misplaced. I missed home, I missed the familiar environment and I missed my family. I even missed my old job that I wasn’t even a fan of in the first place. Thankfully, London is such a central hub that over the course of the next few months I had both friends and family come to visit me which helped with the missing my people part of the move.
Moving to another country by yourself is something so exciting, exhilarating but so scary at the same time
I never expected a true culture shock. I mean, it was an English speaking commonwealth country. After having lived and dealt with a summer in Geneva in a totally French environment (as someone who does not speak a word of French), I thought it would be super easy. Don’t get me wrong, while there is not a culture shock, there were many small things: slang I didn’t understand, phrases I didn’t know meanings to, navigating food in a grocery store and even having trouble with the accents many times over.
Throughout this time, I was painfully homesick, yet another thing I had not expected to hit so hard. It took us an entire year for us to feel like we were at home. And now, I write this post while I am in a week long break in Toronto, things and my perspective is getting even further clarity. It was the absolute best move and an incredible life experience. At the moment we still have another year to go on our visa but the idea of leaving when we are finally feeling at home makes our emotions swing like a pendulum. For now though, the goal is to absorb the London life, travel as much as we can and enjoy it to its absolute best!
I would encourage anyone out there reading this to definitely move abroad and put yourself out of your comfort zone at some point in your life. It’s an incredible experience, pushes you grow so much as a person and as cliche as this may sound, truly broadens one’s horizons.
All opinions are my own.
