As I was just driving back from my little sister’s 25th birthday dinner it suddenly occurred to me that it was five years ago on this very same weekend that my life changed forever. In the space of 48 hours I submitted my PhD dissertation, played and won a hockey grand final (which just happened to be the last game of hockey I played) and left the country to start a new life in Austria. Looking back on the 5 years that have passed since that crazy weekend I am reminded of a different me, one who saw the beauty in every new experience and who dreamed of the opportunities to come. Had you asked me then where I would be now, I would surely have given you a vastly different answer, but if you had been able to tell me that I would spend almost 3 years in the USA and then end up back here, right where it all started, I wouldn’t have been too perturbed either.
It’s been a really tough week here, and not one I would ever want to experience again but at least I can now find some comfort in the memories of what became some of the most volatile but best years of my life. It’s time to get that feeling back and now I can finally see that the only way to do that is to take charge of my life and what I can control, and accept those things I can’t. Not an easy task, but with those memories to remind me that I’ve done it all before there is some comfort in my ability to do it all again.