Personal Growth

I contemplated what I should title this blog. But I had already used the ones I thought of initially. So, personal growth seemed to be the next best option. After 2 years of New Zealand’s border being closed and not having the opportunity to go overseas for just about 3 years, I decided to be brave and take a chance and book a trip to Sydney.

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My thinking behind going to Sydney as opposed to another city was just that, in case, I needed help as we come to terms with travelling in a new normal life, I have people here I could reach out to. This was perhaps the first time in years, that I felt so passionate about getting on a plane to go back to a place that I dreaded for so long.

I wanted to write this blog, to share my experience about this journey being a full circle. It would be great, if you read it as so, as well, rather than interpreting it as anything else. I had moved to Sydney in 2015, without knowing what the future held for me. It was a jump that I had to make, and I could have let my fears overtake me, but instead, I took a leap of faith. I hated every minute of living in Sydney. It wasn’t the glorified city life, that I had imagined. It was instead, the hard, living pay check to pay check life, with little to no savings, and no financial freedom to do anything.

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All I could afford was a tiny, studio apartment, which felt like a prison cell. I blamed everything for living such a hard life, and Sydney kept throwing more curve balls at me. I just couldn’t catch a break. My goal of wanting to work in concerts kept slipping away, and I questioned whether this was all worth it. I lasted just under 2 years in Sydney. But now, that I’ve had enough time to reminisce over my time in Sydney, the truth is I should have embraced every single second of it. I made it back to New Zealand in 2017, and once I’d had some time to recover, I started missing Sydney a lot. In fact, I went through a phase of wanting to move back, but I had no strategy or plan behind it. So, I decided to not push through.

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I started working in New Zealand, and slowly the thought of heading to Australia for a holiday or even to relocate again, faded away. I had no inkling to even think about buying tickets to Australia, and at one point it felt like, that’s how it could be forever, and I was okay with that. As life would have it, in 2019, I had the opportunity of heading to Sydney to deliver an event. This was the first time I was heading back, and it felt a bit unreal. I remember having anxiety attacks again, as I remembered some of my dark days in Sydney. I had to keep reminding myself, that this was just a temporary trip. As it was a short trip, I was quite literally in and out of the city, I didn’t get to experience too much of it, and that squashed my anxiety.

However, this trip in June 2022, this was different. By this point in time, I had had a taste of success. Whilst I can’t quite claim that what I had done was a concert, it was the closest I’d ever got to it. I am no longer living pay check to pay check, and have a lot more financial freedom than what I did 6 years ago. I got on that plane, still filled with anxiety attacks as I recalled some of the days, but you know what was waiting for me on the other side? A bunch of people who were so excited to see me and made the time to come have a meal with me. A grateful me, who was sleeping in a nice hotel, appreciating that, if it had not been for the time in Sydney, I would have never got to experience and indulge in all the things that I can today. A grown up me, who works hard for her goals. I got to appreciate the other side of me, the one who was standing in the city that she hated, but was the beginning to all of her achievements.

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Sydney is the city that made me.

Until next time,

MiliG