'we live here'

Posted on Mon 27 November 2006 at 10:53

Wanted to get this one down before it went out of my head, so here it is, on its own, no frills, no funnies, no adornment.

We watched some Billy Connelly tonight, he was just heading for New Plymouth on North Island and I have watched this episode before.  But what was going through my head was: we have come such a long way since we last saw this.  I can’t remember exactly how far along in our emigration plans we were, but I don’t think it was recently. We watched it thinking ‘we might be there one day’.   It just made me think how much we have achieved since then. I had to get my nursing registration recognised before even thinking about applying for a Visa.  Then the telephone interviews which were a nightmare: so many missed non-verbal cues, poor technology, 4 people interjecting etc.  Emigrating to NZ is a long costly process, but we live here now…  We have come through the goodbyes which weren’t easy for any of us or the people we have left behind – we miss you all, but we live here.  We had given up everything in the UK, house, cars, motorbike, jobs, friends, easy access to our dear ones on a whim, a dream, a goal that we didn’t even know was sustainable but we live here.

Every now and again, for no obvious reason, it just pops into my head – ‘we live here’.  We have aimed towards this to some degree or other for 4 -5 years and now we live here.  People have said to us ‘have you been before?’ “No” ‘You might not like it’ – we live here.  ‘How can you just give everything up and go?’ - We live here.  ‘You are so lucky, going to NZ’ – No, we chose to make it happen, it wasn’t luck, it was a choice we made and now we live here. 

It is a fierce joy, an exultation, a validation, an epiphany – we live here. We worked damned hard to make it happen and I never doubted it was a good decision but now I have that validation – for me the fact that Melissa is happy and settled in school is all I need to make me realise I haven’t ruined her life or ours on a whim – we live here.  Every time I say ‘we live here’ it underpins our commitment to the choice we have made and are very happy to stand by.

I guess there may be 2 points I’m fumbling to make here:

We take ourselves by surprise in our daily lives with the satisfaction of the choice we have made and wish everyone the same joy that we constantly find.

For those finding themselves bogged down in the whole emigration process – there is light at the end of the tunnel and in the future you too may find yourself watching Billy and thinking ‘YES, WE LIVE HERE!!’

we live here

Posted by helinuk on Tue 28 November 2006 at 01:07 - Link

Great post Karen.
When we went through so much grief over Oz visas. My friends told me I was so determined I'd get there! Well it wasn't to be. But I have a feeling we might just make it to NZ. It really helps to read BE and blogs like yours and hold onto the hope that we will live there! Well done keep up the blog

We Live Here

Posted by Am Loolah on Mon 4 December 2006 at 10:38 - Link

Reading this one gave me goose bumps. So pleased it's working out for you all. Hope we follow in your footsteps. You go girl!!! And by the way - it's me Robbie wants, not you, move on, get over it!!!