One Year On

Next week we are going to celebrate one year since our flight from Buenos Aires to Sydney took us here on 16th December 2010.

Whilst the flight's path took us through the fringes of Antarctica I remember looking outside the window and thinking that my life felt a bit like that alien world: it looked so peaceful from the outside, but the terrain ahead was going to be possibly treacherous and unexplored. That feeling was both exhilarating and terrifying.

I was wondering the other day how our lives have changed over the last year - what are the biggest takeaways from the beginning of this new chapter.

One of the first feelings that came to me was on the same line of that time I jumped off a plane during my travels: the pleasant surprise when you accomplish something outside of our comfort zone. It turns out the path was not treacherous - just very unexplored.

I am chuffed about the life we have managed to create for ourselves: it is fabulous. Australia feels like the right place at the right time. And not just personally - with the world's epicenters slowly shifting towards Australasia being here really feels exciting. Strangely one of the most remote places now feels like it is in the middle of the action. When I was growing up Australia was a fabled land people like me never visited - having built a life here with Tatz and being in the process of buying our first home over here makes me feel proud.

The other feeling that came to me was the realisation that this year has been strange in many ways - there has been a lot of sorting things out. It was like going to the supermarket and shop for a intricate recipe.

Someone has recently pointed out to me how life is made of small segments - a concatenation of things and stuff that we do, we think, we plan. This year has largely felt that way.

These things included finding jobs (and once found getting comfortable in them), hunting for flats, building a new life, discovering a healthier side of us, etc etc.

It turns out that buying a flat is a job by itself! Seriously, could anyone make the process any more complicated to the naive and unaware First Time Buyer?

Perhaps for the first time I have not thrown myself into a new million things and I just allowed myself to slow down.

Perhaps this is the first time that I have allowed myself to stop since I applied for that government scholarship 14 years ago and I embarked on that weird and wonderful journey that has taken me from a small town in Sardinia all the way to the fringes of Antarctica. It has been great, but so exhausting. I gave all of myself to this during my 20s.  It was quite fitting how the circle closed when I turned 30, and in the same year another cycle started off.

So I reckon this is the biggest takeaway: Sydney has given me space. Space to stop rushing for a while. Space for The Rat to buy all those ingredients with his tuberous companion. This period was necessary and now I feel a bit like I am coming out of hibernation.

As I come into a new year I feel my soul is more peaceful. I feel ready for the new year and pretty excited because there is a lot I want to do.

I am happy here doing the things and stuff that I am doing.