Why are you moving to Ireland?

Here I go again. No stranger to the blogging world, I set out yet again to attempt to create and maintain a regular blog. Are blogs still a thing? Maybe not, but I'm really going to try to see this one through. Mostly, for my friend Milica, who, upon coming to terms with my moving halfway across the world responded with "Well, you better at least blog about it!" So Milica, this whole blog is dedicated to you. 

If you haven't been following my social media posts as of late, you may not know that I have recently moved to Ireland. Everyone who knows me knows I was born in Ireland and moved to Canada when I was a child. You know this, because that fun fact always followed the tutorial on how to pronounce my name. (Something I haven't struggled with in the last two months, thank God). 

So yeah, moving countries. Big decision, right? Let me kind of break down how it all went down. I made the decision to move countries about a year ago, but only started to tell people my plans last Fall. One by one I began to tell the people closest to me, and one by one they all responded with the same question: Why?

My standard answer became 'because I want to', (or as they say here in Ireland 'for the craic!' ) but it's so much deeper than that. 

I figure I'll start this blog off with my explanation, and going forward I'll describe and document my entire transition into uprooting my life and starting over. I'll try not to be too boring, and I'll try my best to make a point of visiting new places so I can document it all for you. However, back to the topic at hand. 

Let me describe the last year of my life for you. Or as I like to remember it: The most challenging year of my life. Every part of my mental and emotional strength was put to the test, and I genuinely think I came out a better person after it all. 

New year's eve, December 31, 2015: I had a moment where I promised myself I would change my life. The days leading up to New Year's Eve, I spent alone in my apartment thinking seriously about my life, where it was going and how I felt about it. For the first time in a long time I became honest with myself: I was in a rut. I was trapped in a relationship I didn't want to be in, I came to find that the job I used to love so passionately had changed, and I dreaded going in every day, I didn't like the city I lived in, and most importantly, I found myself saying "I wish I'd moved to Ireland five years ago". I promised myself 2016 would be my year, and I would make the changes I needed to make. What I didn't realise, was that my hand was about to be played for me, much sooner than I anticipated. 

As soon as I got back to work after Christmas break, I realised it was time to start applying for new jobs. I spent hours after work every night applying to every job I was qualified for, and found I was having to apply to a lot of jobs in Toronto. I was being selective, because I really didn't want to move to Toronto. February 2016 came along, and my world started to come crashing down around me. I found out I was being made redundant at work. My initial reaction was fear. I hadn't had time to find a new job, I was living alone, and didn't know how I was going to pay my rent. I immediately left work that day, drove to my parents and cried it out with them. Now would be the appropriate time to say that my parents have been and continue to be the strongest support system anyone could ever ask for. Any problem I have ever thrown at them has been made better just by talking it through with them. They quickly reminded me how miserable I was at work, and assured me not to worry, no matter how bad things got I wouldn't end up on the streets. I left their house that evening feeling a million times better. I immediately headed over to my (now ex-) boyfriend's house. He suggested we go for ice cream to cheer me up, and we headed off to Dairy Queen. As we sat in the restaurant and I rehashed the day's events for him, I suddenly burst out laughing. Naturally he looked at me like I was crazy and asked what was so funny. My response was "I just lost my job...." but in my head I was also thinking "and I'm going to break up with you too!" I didn't tell him that part just yet. 

In that moment, I decided I needed to make a drastic change. I couldn't spend the rest of my life wishing I'd done more for myself. I made the decision then and there to move to Ireland as soon as the lease on my apartment was up. About a week after I was made redundant, one of the jobs I had applied for in January contacted me for an interview. I went to the interview and got the job. I was relieved, because it meant I'd be able to continue paying my rent and saving my money for Ireland. 

In the coming weeks I would end up ending the relationship, leaving that job and moving on to a different job. This new job wasn't something I ever saw for myself long term, but seemed to be the most effective way to save money and motivate me to work towards Ireland. The job security in that job was slim to none, and I found myself panicking over whether or not it would last long enough to get me through to Spring 2017. I started saving everything I had in order to move much sooner than anticipated. While all of this was going on, my personal life was taking a hit, with challenge after challenge coming my way. I fought through all the challenges with one goal in mind: Ireland. 

I have been talking about moving to Ireland since I was a teenager. I have always wondered what it would be like to live here, how different my life would have been had I never left. I came to the realisation that my grandparents were getting older, and I wanted to be here and fulfill a dream I'd had for many years. I felt it was the perfect time to move, the economy in Ireland was booming, the economy in Niagara was garbage. I'd managed to walk away from a terrible relationship, and had hopes towards a future somewhere else. I've had a lot of people ask if I moved here for a man, or if I was running away from something, and the short answer is no. I did this for myself, because it's something I've been talking about since I was 16 years old. 

So I set off, with no job lined up, hoping to God my education and experience would steer me in the right direction. It took me 3 weeks to find a job in my field. Three weeks. People were telling me it would take much longer, that I'd have to work in a grocery store at first, that I was crazy for moving countries with nothing lined up and I had no idea how hard it would be to find a job. and I did it in three weeks. 

I'm sorry for rambling and I'm sorry this was so heavy! I will fill the next few blogs with my struggles and joys of my first few weeks in Ireland, and will carry on with the blog filled with my experiences of my new life. 

I'll leave you with this:

The biggest lesson 2016 taught me was to take chances. I didn't want to be 40 years old saying to myself "God, remember when I had the chance to move to Ireland when I was 30 and I didn't do it because it was scary?" I spent the last seven years of my life playing it safe and doing the 'responsible' thing, and life still threw me into a tailspin. Life is going to happen, whether we like it or not. We might as well do what makes us happy.