Since i made this blog public (less than a week ago only) i have received some concerned comments regarding my happiness level in the UAE. Some of my friends also tried to make me reconsider my decision to leave Europe, quit my job and move on. Obviously I did not sound super optimistic so I feel the need to correct, or at least explain myself.
So, for once, let me ask YOU the question: what does "being happy" actually mean?
"Yes I know I expressed some tough comments regarding my life in Dubai since I moved in June. And yes I am not hiding it, there were difficult times. But you know what? it's getting much better, and I swear I am not trying to convince myself. Seriously, you cannot expect anyone to merge so fast in a new place straight after changing many important things in your life.
Consider it: everyone needs a bit of time to adapt to a new apartment, to a new job. In my case I have not only changed my job, I also moved to another apartment, another city, another country, another continent. I have left much behind to be with my man again, and I have no regret. He's worth the change, and I was looking for it as well. Don't you have sometimes the impression you are stuck somewhere? I don't have the impression anymore that I escaped from something by leaving: I have finally the impression I have moved on".
Nobody said it was easy, Coldplay said. Moving, adapting, changing, growing, all this takes time, and the more you push it, the less it comes. It's tough, sometimes painful. You tend to experience ups and downs more often that others, you also feel them in a deeper way. But isn't it the way to learn who you are? Remember one thing: if I'm not saying that I am happy, it does not mean that I am unhappy. There is a massive difference in concepts here. I feel peaceful, but it happens that I feel stressed once in a while by my new life. Pretty much like everyone else. I do miss my friends of course, but I do not miss the safety and comfort I had chosen in my everyday life before I left. I recognized the signals, I panicked, I carefully considered pros and cons, and I took my decision.
"After much time away from him, I am now with the man I love, and just for this I can seriously be greatful. Yes I miss my friends, but they also know where I am, as much as I know where they are. Being away does not make them strangers, I probably even feel closer to them this way. And look, think about it: I am in the right place to start all over again. I have the right to choose differently, I have the possibility to re-invent myself. Who else can have such an opportunity?"
Nobody said it was easy, Coldplay said. I am learning, designing, modelling myself. I am working with the past to create a new me. Inch'allah it will lead somewhere. Are you happy, then?
Reading your blog regularly, and finding soooooo many hints on my own situation ! :) No need for a far far away expatriation, being in a neighbor Euopean country brings the same questions, "alien feeling" and challenges, switching from "this was probably the biggest mistake I ever made" to "well guys I speek now fluently a 4th language, got a field experience that no master-level person would ever dare to put his feets into and I might be in a dead-end compared to my qualifications, but you know what I have ONE priceless thing : the projects I can achieve and share WITH him !"
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