The past 10 months

It has been over 10 months since I last posted on this blog and it hasn't been for a lack of interest or love for this blog... it's just that life has gotten in the way. Since my return to Australia a year ago, I have been busy putting a life together post-TAPIF.

As anyone who has lived and worked abroad for an extended period of time will tell you, returning 'home' after you have experienced somewhere else is both very easy and very difficult. Easy because you fall back into friends and family and your home town, but difficult because you are not the same person you were. You had this whole other life on the other side of the world and now it's suddenly gone. This life almost feels like it never existed except for all the memories you have and the photos you took that prove it actually happened.

Being an 'adult' and figuring out the right choice for you has been what this past year has been about for me. It has been a lot of soul searching, a lot of hard work and a lot of decisions. For a long time, I have ruminated on the career I could see myself doing in the future. I have interests in a lot of things and feel I could do them all equally as competently... but what would make me happy? What choice would help me live the life I want?

The idea of 'happiness' means something different to everyone, but to me it is being fulfilled by the work I do rather than how much money I'm making or the security it brings me. Happiness means living the life I want rather than the life other people expect me to lead. Happiness means having a sense of purpose and direction with the choices and actions I take in my life, rather than letting life 'happen' to me. Happiness to me is not safety or comfort, it is being in love with my life.

If I am able to live up to this ideal of happiness, I will consider myself very lucky.

After a long time, I ultimately decided that teaching was it. I was accepted into a masters of teaching program in January and as the year has gone by, I know that I made the right decision. It has been a tough year and I've never worked so hard, but I have never for a second regretted it. The more I study, the more I realise how many opportunities there are that don't necessarily involve the traditional teacher-classroom career path. There is so much out there and I am so excited about what the future may hold.

I can't tell you what's going to happen next year and where I'll be, all I know is that living abroad, travelling and doing TAPIF changed my life irrevocably... if I can say that without sounding completely douchey and pretentious haha!

Thank you so much for reading,

Cora