Some years ago I left what was to turn out to be the best paid job I've ever had in order to go & work in the US for six months.
I'd been in my job for three years, my first proper job after graduating & I was very happy there.
I had a great social life, shared a beautiful house with friends & I was responsibility free...
I had no financial commitments whatsoever.
An opportunity came up in the US and I just felt really strongly that it was now or never....
I knew I wouldn't have the freedom or time to do it if I waited even just another year.
I knew it would mean resigning from my job in London & I'd have no home or job to return to once the 6 months was up.
But I just knew it was the right thing & I pretty much made an immediate decision to go.
To this day, I still consider it one of the best decisions I've ever made, I've never ever regretted it.
My time in the US was life-changing, it was the right move at exactly the right time.
I can clearly remember leaving Heathrow Airport - it was the the first time I'd flown alone - with nothing but excitement in my head and my heart.
I couldn't wait to begin the adventure.
And an adventure & an experience it most definitely was.
It was actually my first time in America, I met so many new people and none of it felt strange, it just felt normal & natural, I adapted to life there straightaway .
I worked long days but didn't mind one bit, I couldn't get enough of it all.
I spent a lot of time by myself, which at times was challenging....
but I often think it was the making of me, it was a turning point in my life after which so many things became better and better in so many ways.
I made decisions single-handedly and nothing went wrong
(which made me feel even better about myself!)
....it felt like both a milestone & an achievement.
And 6 months turned into 9 months when I was asked to work as an au pair for a lovely family in NYC....
I had every week-end totally to myself to explore Manhattan....can you imagine??!!
Those Saturdays were some of the happiest of my life.
This past week-end I was telling my children the story about flying off to America alone.
I've never forgotten what a great time I had but even as I was sharing the story, part of me was still, even after all these years, amazed that I had been brave enough to walk away from my London life.
I had been to Europe but had never travelled alone, when I was young I was always homesick when I had sleepovers at friends' houses and many times had to be brought home in the middle of the night & I always refused point blank to go on any exchange programs at school to Paris or Barcelona, the idea filled me with complete horror!
Apart from sharing with my children what an amazing adventure it was, I was also trying to explain to them....
* that sometimes you really need to trust your instinct & do what that little voice inside tells you....
it's rarely wrong
* sometimes you have to take a chance, just jump
* that if you never do it, you'll never know how it might have turned out
* sometimes the time to do something really is right now
* it is highly unlikely that you will dislike travelling, in my experience there really is nothing better
* that there is nothing worse than regret, thinking what might have been
* sometimes you can't wait for life to happen to you, you have to make it happen
* be brave
I have always been so thankful that I took that opportunity when I did and
when I did eventually return to London, I walked straight into a great job & within two months I met the man who would become my husband!!
If I hadn't changed jobs, I would never have met him....
and if I'd met him earlier, I might never have gone to the US!
Life really does have a way of working out perfectly :)
