Dropping Everything & Starting Over: 6 Months Later

Last April the chance and the final decision to leave everything behind and start over fell into my lap. 

Would we? Should we? The logistical nightmare plagued me for days. 

However, the excitement consumed me as well. I had been feeling bored and restless, not only at my job but my social life too. I tried to rationalize my thought process when making this huge decision but in my heart I already knew what I wanted. I wanted change. I wanted excitement and adventure. This wasn't as big of a change as moving to a completely new country where I wouldn't know the language. Nor, was it financially irresponsible because my husband had been offered a great new job. Nothing was stopping us. 

The decision was finally made and by June we had packed up our belongings - throwing away a lot of our junk (very therapeutic). We sold our house, said goodbye to family and friends and with only a car full of our essentials  we drove across the country with our little dog to our new life. 

6 Months later...

The honey moon period was definitely over. 

I won't lie a few weeks after the move I had come to regret my decision. The grass was not greener on the other side. 

Exploring our new home and trying to meet new friends, finding a place to live etc. had kept me occupied for a while but now I was left thinking now what?

Slowly, as I became settled in I became accustomed to life in our new home. We finally had furniture; I no longer had to rely on Google Maps to find my local grocery store & we managed to reconnect with some old friends.

However, I surprised myself one day by thinking that it wouldn't be so bad to move back. In fact, it might be what I wanted to do eventually. 

There were lots of positives that came from leaving behind everything but I was surprised by the negatives as well. 

I miss my old friends - skyping is not the same as meeting up at 10pm to watch a movie in our PJs. My family used to live an hour away and we saw each other often (perhaps, too often), but now they would need to jump in a plane to come see me and that might only happen once a year if at all. We've missed out on more family events than we would have liked to skip out on. We got the space and change we craved but also the loneliness that comes with it. The biggest boon of this move has been how close my husband and I have gotten. 

Life is different - it's not bad but nor is it the amazing exciting life I had imagined when I had jumped on the opportunity to drop everything and leave. I had definitely been in a rut back home or thought I was but I've come to realize that change can only do so much. 

I come across countless of articles, blog posts, etc. of people proclaiming they've had enough or are looking to make a huge change. They are bored at their jobs, feel stagnant at home and just like I once did, they want to drop everything and just go...

I wrote this post as a word of caution. Dropping everything is not all it's cracked up to be and unfortunately, you might not realize it until after you have done it. Just because you have moved or are lucky enough to be able to travel around the globe does not mean your problems will not follow you. Leaving everything behind will not suddenly make you super happy (in fact, it may create even more problems down the line). Sometimes all you might need is a vacation.

So do some careful thinking before you turn your world upside down. I am sure there are plenty of stories out there both of people who have had positive and negative experiences of leaving everything behind. Feel free to share :)