Unrealistic expectations

Living and working in England has always been something I’ve wanted to do. Infact, it’s fair to say it’s been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. It’s had a pretty large impact on my life as well. Over the last few years, regardless of what I found myself doing back in Australia, dropping everything and coming over to England was always in the back of my mind. It’s made it quite difficult to every really fully commit to anything.

So it’s now almost four weeks in to having finally realised that “dream”, what am I feeling?

Well first I’d like to acknowledge that I completely understand that it’s far too early to definitively categorise the experience of living in England after just three weeks. Especially given that I’ve been staying in what is effectively temporary accommodation with family. But hey, this is a blog post after all and blog posts are all about an expression of how we are feeling at a given moment so I’m going to let rip!

The most appropriate word to describe my first four weeks of living and working in England would have to be “underwhelming”. The reality of living in England day to day has certainly shattered a vast number of ill informed pre conceptions I had coming in. As I’ve begun the process of acclimatising, I’ve been experiencing my fair share of frustrations. As an example, let’s take the dubious quality of fresh meat from the local supermarkets. I love to cook and I place great importance on having quality ingredients to cook with….. Well let’s just say that it’s been quite a battle to satisfy that requirement.

The truth is though, these frustrations have actually demonstrated something that I never really expected. Access to quality meat it seems was something I took for granted back in Australia. That’s a sentiment which is coming up pretty regularly. Indeed I’m starting to realise that I took a lot of things in Australia for granted. By doing so I clearly failed to appreciate them for what they were worth.

I suppose I could let this get me down a tad, but I’m far from disheartened. Infact I’ve actually found it to be extremely liberating. I feel that over the last few weeks, I’ve been progressively able to let go of the unrealistic expectations of  a dream, that if I’m honest have been holding me back for quite some time.

Don’t take it the wrong way, I’ve got no intentions to get back on a plane to Australia tomorrow. Infact if anything, I think it’s actually going to make it a lot easier to enjoy the experience of living in England. After only three weeks, I’ve obviously only just touched the surface. There is so much more to explore in this country, not to mention I’ve got the rest of Europe on my door step! By letting go of these harmful pre-existing expectations about what things should be like, I’m now free to experience things for what they actually are. For mine, that’s a much better way to approach things!

The other benefit of course is that when the time does come to go back to Australia, I will be able to do so fully committed to the idea rather than having part of me always desiring that unrealistic and unfounded dream.

So whilst the first four weeks may not have been what I was expecting, I’m still convinced that I’m on the right path. I’m learning so much, both positive and negative and that’s really all you can ask for. My next big challenge now is finding a suitable flat in London!