The Big Move...

Young at heart with curiosity, adventure and good times on her mind, I at 19 decided I wanted to move from my home town of Perth to Sydney…for it to be for 3 months, 6 months, a year or as long as I could last away from home. I had been on many holidays to Sydney growing up and had always wanted to live there at some point in my life but would not have thought it would have been so young or have had such a huge impact on my life at the time and still today.

There were many emotions, experiences and events that took place from fun to sad and very overwhelming. It started from my good friend (Lauren) that I had grown up with moving to Bondi 3 years previously, I went over to Sydney for a month holiday to stay with her and pretty much had the time of my life. Of course at the young age this heavily involved eating and drinking out, tourist attractions and opening my eyes to life in the big city that was new to me. I came back to quiet Perth after my amazing holiday and had mixed emotions of what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be... then the opportunity to move in with Lauren came up and I jumped at the chance! Of course it was a very hard decision to leave my family and friends but my heart and head was telling me to ‘Just go! And if I don’t like it, then come home.’

Two weeks later, leaving my mother crying at the airport, I was off. Everything was so surreal and I had friends tell me ‘I give you 3 months Jen and you will back, no way can you last being on the other side of the country from your home.’ This comment did come in the nicest way possible from a good friend and I admit was based from the beautiful home and care I have grown up with. Although I have always been a hard working and independent soul, definitely the baby of the family in regard to being spoilt and had a lot done for me growing up (which I entirely thank my parents for) but excuse me, three and a half years later until I returned to Perth.

This entire experience changed my life and not saying there weren’t horrible moments leaving me in crying array on my bedroom floor from home sickness or general tough days but I would never take the experience away. It opened my eyes up to a completely different world and I believe in things happen for a reason and I was meant to move there when I did. I leave it down to ‘If it feels right then do it’ and I did! People asked how did you do it, like make new friends or be happy in a new anew place? I am very sociable and outgoing but I definitely had to get out of my comfort zone and jump in there, and to this day still have made friends in Sydney that I will have for life. If I didn’t put the effort in and open myself up to new people and new friendships, I would have been home in an instant.

I find it difficult to explain the uplifting feeling, maturity and life knowledge I gained from moving to a completely new city and unless you have lived in a different city away from your comfort zone, you could not understand entirely. This moment in my life holds great significance into the person I have grown to be today, not saying I didn’t make any mistakes or silly decisions but I am proud of myself for opening up for a new challenge and venture. I can still remember the first day as a little 19 year old girl arriving to the big city, falling into a job at an amazing company, living a 5 minute walk from one of the best beaches in Australia, eating tuna out of a can so I could afford to go out on the weekends and learning discipline and understandings that I didn’t know existed.