My calendar reads “Monday, Pack boxes”, “Tuesday, Pack boxes”, “Wednesday, Pack boxes”, … all the way to this weekend.
I’m leaving London, it’s really happening. And although the plan is for me to return after three months of living abroad, I get the sense that I will want to stay away for longer.
I don’t know what I’m going to find but I know I need to go looking for it.
I’ve got this feeling that’s pulling at me hard away from where I am and for the first time I’m giving it the reigns and saying, “you know what? Yeah, let’s get out of here, who cares!”
And today it started to feel real because I started putting my possessions in boxes. The bulk of it will be my books, clothes, electronics and a couple of generic white IKEA furniture. The small hoard of a bachelor in the midst of the first of many life-crises to come.
But this isn’t a crisis - the World is in crisis, I can’t compare what ever – points to himself – this is to the death of millions of people, the Government telling us to stay away from each other, not to mention the other shit that was already going on before a virus crippled entire nations and the other stuff that has happened at the same time.
What I know is that I need to stop working so hard before I find myself 5 years into the same job having put a tonne of energy into, leaving nothing else for “me”.
If over a year of therapy has taught me anything, it’s that I need pay attention to the guy typing these words. He’s pretty cool, done a bunch of work on himself this year and he’s looking for the next thing. He doesn’t know what that thing is yet or where it is, but he’s looking for it and I’m proud of him for trying.
I know for a fact that this guy is exhausted from having worked his socks off for an entire pandemic! Like a lot of people, he’s feeling burned out and curious about what life could be like somewhere other than the one room he felt like he inhabited for the last 6 months.
Anyway, spoiler alert it’s me I’m typing this 😱
Oh, I didn’t brag about where I’m going yet, I’m going to Switzerland!!
When I told my hairdresser this fact, he straight-up told me that was the last place I needed to go and said it was boring. And yeah, maybe he’s right but I don’t care because I am proud that I made this decision and it is most certainly not the end of my journey, just like London wasn’t (although maybe one day it will be, I <3 this concrete/glass sprawl).
If I decide I love Zurich and want to stay a bit more, then I can probably do that! And if I want to leave and go somewhere else or quit my job (I’ll be working remotely), then I could also do that. Anything is possible!
I’m excited but also exhausted and ready to go and lay around in snowy Switzerland for a bit.
And if I can’t because of Covid then I’ll just move to Bristol and pretend it’s continental Europe.