Expat Life in Ireland // Month #12 recap and photos
HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO ME AND MY DEAREST DUBLIN! ONE WHOLE YEAR OF LIVING MY BEST (EXPAT) LIFE!
I’ve officially hit the year mark since moving to Dublin, and what an amazing year it’s been! However, this latest month of expat life here has been a heck of a stressful one, both in good and bad ways.
April wasn’t too busy of a month. But, it was a month of turning points – of old things ending and new things beginning. My #1 compadre, my friend who moved here with me a year ago, returned home. Although she’ll be back in a few months, I had to find a new apartment and leave my roommates that I had lived with since I moved to Ireland. I had to move into a new living place with new roommates. And in addition to my personal move, my office moved too. So, I started having to cycle to the office. The school year was ending, meaning my Irish friends who are students locked themselves away to begin studying for their exams. And most importantly, my Working Holiday Authorisation visa was ending, which meant I was eagerly and anxiously waiting to see if I would be able to stay in Ireland longer.
Hitting the one-year mark has really given me a cause for some inner reflection. I’m usually very light-hearted on my blog. I love talking about the adventures I’ve had traveling and being an expat in Ireland. But I want it to be clear that expat life isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. It’s an incredible adventure, but there are dark times. It’s easy to feel lonely in a big city, easy to feel homesick, easy to feel like you don’t have many friends and don’t have many connections.
I’ve learned more about myself this year abroad than I ever have, but I’m not going to sit here and say that there were never moments over the past 12 months where I wanted to just quit and go home. But I threw myself out of my comfort zone – I arrived in a big, new place with no job and no place to live. The only person in the entire city I knew was my friend that moved here with me. We quickly found an apartment. I found a waitressing and retail job. I had to really put myself out there to find a graphic design job, which was what I was aiming for. Plus it took countless interviews and suffering countless rejections until I finally found one (which I love!).
I also had to really put myself out there and really make an effort to make friends. For the first time in my life, I didn’t have a huge group of friends that I had known since childhood and from university. I had to start from scratch, but I did end up making a handful of great friends.
But this past month, I started to feel an immense sense of homesickness. And I guess it was because of all of those turning points. I had finally gotten comfortable with my life here in Ireland, and now so many things are changing and shifting. In some ways it’s like I’m starting from scratch. And although it is scary and can sometimes feel lonely – it’s also very exciting! That’s the whole reason I did this whole thing in the first place… to get out of my comfort zone!
And now it’s on to the next phase of the adventure because it looks like I’ll be staying in Ireland for another few years!!!!
That’s right, I’ve figured out my visa situation and thanks to my employer, people who supported me, and the great people of the Irish immigration services (……..JK) it looks like my time here is far from over! I feel so so so so #blessed and I’m ready to jump into this 2nd year head-on.
So besides a little quarter-life crisis I had this month – What am I even doing here? Should I just go home? Where do I see myself in 10 years? What do I want to do with my life? – April also included a lot of really great things. I had a few good nights out with friends and coworkers. Plus, we got the first taste of summer weather here in Dublin. And I took a great solo trip to Bath, England, too.
So here is a recap of my 12th month of expat life in Ireland, in photos! If you missed last month’s recap, you can check it out here!
