Oink

If you want an emigration challenge move to southern Sudan or the highlands of Irian Jaya, but Calgary or Toronto?

helcat12

I am not there yet ( hope I can say 'yet') but me and OH (who is there currently) echo what Funky Florist said. Some people just need to get out and do something different - they don't expect it to be a dreamworld but will make the best of whatever they encounter. We all hope it will yield a good life in the end, of course, but then we have a good life here so for us it isn't about looking for a 'better' life.
I don't think that there is anything wrong with having high expectations but we definitely wanted to make sure that we were working on achievable levels of expectation and we are still striving all the time to collect evidence to inform our plans.
I really love what I do and I hope to be able to keep doing it in Canada eventually. But I know people in my job who have been in the same workplace and the same job for 20 years - they are happy and have never felt the urge to move on. I am just not one of them. I don't expect them to understand why we want to emigrate any more than I understand how they can stay still and yet perfectly happy in one place for the rest of their lives.
Maybe it is the thrill of not knowing what could happen. Maybe it is the desire to be in control of your life, to break out of the norm and what everyone expects every now and again and be something different - in a new country with new people and places you can reinvent yourself if you want to.
Maybe some people just agree with the maxim, "It isn't the destination, it's the journey." Some people like me just like variety and change. Not everyone is trying to achieve a dream at the end - for some people maybe just doing it is the dream.

Alan2005

One day you will envy those people.

ducktastic

Oh come on you Victor Meldrews! Of course it will be this way, it is human nature, I am guilty as charged, emigrating in a months time, so not there yet. I have been on some amazing holidays to BC, so it is all lovely and rose tinted right now, I am fully aware that once the daily routine kicks in and I find myself in a strange country, not knowing anyone, working hard and it aint all whale watching and skiing on a daily basis that I will no doubt struggle some days.

All I know is it has been a dream (yep the D word) for the last 5 years to give this ago, and what the heck is life all about if we can't aspire to something?

If it all crashes around my ears, well at least when I am 80, I won't think what if?

Oink

Wouldn't it be more of an inspiring challenge to try and become a high court judge or a neurosurgeon or something a bit more, well, challenging than just moving house?

ducktastic

Well it is just horses for courses...besides which the whole wig and gown is such a bad look for me, and needles make me feel funny

lmartin999

I really don't find it that different here. I don't struggle, I don't find everyday life especially hard. It's kind of the same - which is both good and bad as I'm not very adventurous anyway.

helcat12

No, I think they are boring.
At one time I thought I was that sort of person - needing stability, wanting to control my environment and getting stressed out by change and the worry of what might happen. But I am 40 now and I have had plenty of time to realise that what I like is to have change and be able to enjoy responding to it.
But each to their own - if people are happy with sameness and certainty, then that's fine. We all need some of that in our lives, for sure; it is just how much of it we need that varies.
I have to wonder what made anyone emigrate if they didn't have either the desire for change or the dream of a new life. You can't exactly stumble into emigration.
Perhaps some people just moved because their partner wanted it and they agreed for an easy life, or because their job demanded it or because their family went? If so, then they can't understand the desire to emigrate because they never had it, they just went along with someone else's ideas.

Oink

Each to their own, but the notion that its such a challenge to move to a relatively well-off English speaking western country is a bit challenging to me.

Lorry1

How do you know you have done more than you would have done in the UK?

ducktastic

Sure feels like a challenge to me right now, as I leave my well paid job, my beautiful house, my daughter, the rest of my family and friends etc.

Edited to add - Daughter is 20 by the way so not an abandoned child!

Oink

Have you been watching that Julia Roberts film?

ducktastic

I am definitely doing the 'eat' part of it!

Tangram

Generally, I work, pay the bills, and do a few things I would not be able to do in the UK ( mostly involving snow ). Other than that, it is the same stuff with different surroundings than when I lived in the Cotswolds.

I guess one difference could be location in Canada - I am nowhere near decent mountains and that would add decent skiing into the equation.

Alan2005

No need to be so judgemental

Well, having been here a couple of years and having lived in lots of places, I do envy people who've lived in the same place for 20+ years who know everyone and have life long friendships with people, people who can go into the local pub and know pretty much everyone. My parents have that - and I look at the lives they have now they are in their 60's and I hope I can do as well when I get to that age.

I can't say I understand this. I immigrated here because I came here in the early 90's, and liked it (pull rather than push in BE speak). I had no desire to emigrate for it's own sake or for the challenge. Just as well really, because like Oink says, living here is not even remotely challenging - it is very comfortable though. I like that about it.