Emigration

I am currently working through thousands (yes, thousands!!!) of photos and videos of our holiday in South Africa. When I have selected a few really cool ones I will post them here. In the meanwhile I have been thinking of why I am here at this time.

Why am I, as a South African, living in London currently?

Have you ever emigrated? Why did you emigrate? I'd love to hear from you.

Here are my thoughts.

I moved from Joburg to Cape Town for 7 years when I graduated, to start my business there, plus I had family there, and was born there. Made loads of pals and settled in easily. But I was a social butterfly, I didn't sit at home all day. I got involved with the community.. and it was a small community in a valley. I also met Mr Mac there, so twas a good move :)

Moving to England was never seen as a forever plan for us, just a time for us to travel and get to spend time with the English side of the fam we had come to know and love, prior to settling down and having kids.

We've been here nearly 7 years now (merely a lowly immigrant that's me! haha) and have had good times and bad, have lots of friends, good jobs, I love my business, I love London itself - the architecture and history is incredible, theatre is incredible, I love the countryside - we go out often. I think we've seen more of England than many English folk :)

We've travelled to countries we never thought we could have, London is such a good place to travel from. Us being English speakers helped us settle here for sure. We would have learnt another language if need be, but I do think it would have hampered our settling in as quickly.

It's home for now but not home for good. Our hearts are in Africa. We miss our family there. I have nieces and nephews growing up and I miss this (aside from the fam I have in the USA too!). I prefer the adoption system there. The schools are more disciplined and kids are better behaved. Weather is nicer for sure, but when we moved here we knew what it entailed, and less glorious weather was par for the course :)

There are problems there, but there are problems here too. There is good and bad in all countries, and I think you have to prioritise what is right for YOU and your family at this time in your life (realistically!). All governments are full of cr@p at the best of times, so they are no indicator of whether to move there (unless it's run by a dictator like Mugabe of course!).

BUT... I do believe everything in life is what YOU make of it. Whether it be emigrating to another country, or starting a new business or relationship. It's worth taking the risk. I am glad I am here as this is the right place for us at this time, but I will be glad when we move back to South Africa, as we'll be entering a new and exciting phase of our lives then :)