A little bit of inward learning

As I grow up, I realise the best way to learn about who you are, what your limits are and what you like and don't like, is to put yourself in unfamiliar situations. To push yourself so it feels a bit uncomfortable, like a patch of sunburn or a caramel milkshake when you really wanted chocolate.

Walk a new path, date a new dude, move cities if you have to, so long as you can glean even an itsy bitsy piece of new information about yourself, then it's worthwhile. 

For me, the quest for unfamiliarity and a bit of discomfort drove flew me almost 17,000 kilometres, to the other side of the world. In December 2013 I packed up my entire life, left my job, farewelled my friends and family, and hopped on a plane bound for London. Cue cliche.
Let's be honest, I am not the first and by no means the last Antipodean to have ventured to the mother country. It's not overly remarkable, it's not a new language. But it's been a challenge, nonetheless.

The most interesting thing I've grappled with over the six months since I've been away is adjusting from my routine, and comforts, and realising that although the UK has the same language, a similar culture and a busy city just like home, it's a world apart. 

For starters, when I arrived I was sans job, sans home, sans (many) friends... the odds were definitely in my favour. I was what you call a catch. My first few months living in London consisted of staying on friends' couches - over six weeks I lived in six different places. And work was tough. Without British media experience I wasn't having success in my preferred field, so I swallowed some pride and decided to turn my hand at temp administration. Earning a pittance and doing the most mundane of tasks, it was a great learning experience. Admin was definitely not my passsion. How lucky I was that I had already found a career that actually satisfied and nourished me, and that I at least knew what I wanted to be doing, even if I wasn't quite there yet. 

Not having many possessions, limited by a 23KG suitcase, I learnt that I had been pretty superficial in the past. Shellac each fortnight, massages, an obsession with triple-milled soy candles... you get the gist. When earning 8 quid an hour, your priorities quickly change. No longer can you justify that incredible eyelash extending mascara that costs four hours of pay. And a zone 1-3 travel card seems like a luxury. On the other hand, a 15 pound cocktail has never tasted so good. Because that's the equivalent of two hours answering phones. 

Celebrating Australia day with one of my Aussie friends in London

In the past few months I've been lucky enough to have found a great house living in Battersea, near a beautiful park and not far from the well known The Kings Road, Chelsea. I have a job working in Communications, and I now also have a bf, which I didn't expect when I arrived here in January. All of which are offering pretty meaty learning opportunities. 

It does beg the question though; surely you don't have to travel half-way around the world to learn about yourself. Relationships, new jobs, your family; they all teach you different things. And the best lessons are the ones you're not expecting. The ones where you're not quite sure how you'll get yourself out of a mess, or where your friendship or relationship might go next. The best snippets of understanding are those that are completely unexpected, but leave you with another page to add to your very own encyclopaedia of lessons about yourself.