Some of you may be wondering how I ended up living in the UK. It’s not surprising – until recently I rarely posted on social media. Creating this blog has meant that I have had to use social media in ways that feel strange and unfamiliar.
But my motivation is simple. I want my blog to be a way to stay in touch with my friends and family back home. I hear story after story of other expats who have been slowly forgotten by friends. Their families don’t include them in events, blame them for leaving, and keep important information from them. I don’t want that to happen to me. Maybe it’s a bit selfish. Or maybe sharing my story will empower others to follow a similar path.
My foreign interests
As far back as I can remember, I have been intrigued by all things foreign. Other cultures fascinated me and every nature documentary that I watched on Animal Planet inspired me to travel the world. I wanted, passionately, to see every bit of God’s green Earth.
As my school days ended I was forced to consider my professional trajectory. At first I thought it would be brilliant to just take off and travel. Perhaps become a missionary, or do a stent in the Peace Corps. I thought it was a fine plan, but my mom convinced me (thank goodness) that being a nurse would ensure that I had a job when I wasn’t traveling.
Becoming a nurse
So I went to nursing school with the hope that it would allow me to travel the world. There is much beauty in nursing. You get to positively impact people every day through care and compassion. While that is true, many of us will say it’s a calling because the job isn’t always pretty. It comes with a great deal of responsibility and it can be tiring to care for everyone else, leaving little time for oneself.
But the thing I love, possibly the most, about nursing is how much opportunity lies within it. The type of job that a nurse can have ranges from working at the bedside, to managing, to educating, to IT, to public health. You can find a job as thrilling (read terrifying) as flying in a helicopter with a coding patient or as low key as working on computers with no patient contact.
Nursing has been the foundation upon which I have built my entire life abroad. Without it, living in the UK would have been much more difficult.
My first trip to the UK
In nursing school I had the opportunity to study abroad in the UK which is unusual. Studying abroad is an experience which is not typically possible for student nurses. Our curriculum is intense and there is no room to maneuver.
My alma mater, The University of Evansville, has managed to develop a program which allows nurses to study abroad in the UK for a semester. It was, frankly, one of the main reasons I chose UE. That and the respected reputation of their school of nursing.
Before I say this, I have to apologize because I know just how cliché it is, but it’s also the truth. That semester of living in the UK changed my life. At the time, I was full of self-doubt. I was watching my marriage crumble and struggling with conflicting feelings over the whole matter.
Being away from it all, getting space emotionally and physically was liberating. I was making the majority of my decisions with only myself in mind. The traveling I did was largely with my best friend (now sister-in-law) and fellow nurse, Raquel. We traipsed around Britain and saw bits of Europe with, and I learned to trust myself again. As in any story about a journey, something in me shifted. When I returned to the US, I knew I wasn’t the same woman who had left only 3 months before.
Returning to the British Isles
I read somewhere, years ago, that in life we place mental altars at significant locations and times in our lives. I think I did that with the UK, in a way. Time and circumstance had played its part and my time in the UK, however brief, began to represent renewal, a rebirth of sorts.
I felt drawn to return; I wanted to capitalize on this magic of self-growth which took place on my first visit. It wasn’t the only way to begin again, to move forward, but I wanted to be close to the place where it began.
My return to the UK was convoluted. My original plan was to move to Ireland, the island that was once home to those old, unfamiliar names on the family tree. I worked on this plan for over a year but every step was arduous and nothing was falling into place. I altered the plan (shocking!) and within months was making solid, albeit slow, progress towards living in the UK.
Moving to Norfolk
I plan to write more about the process of becoming an overseas nurse in the UK, so I won’t go into great detail here about visas and getting my nursing license. I will say, however, that it was a long and slow process filled with uncertainty and tedious paperwork.
Finally, though, everything was in place. I had my visa and I stuffed all that I could into a few suitcases. My dad came with me to help me get settled in, but we made a short detour along the way to Iceland. I’m so glad we did. Iceland was unlike any other country I had been to and my dad and I will have those memories forever.
Our final destination was Norwich, chosen mostly because they have an overseas nurse program. The program helps overseas nurses prepare to take an in-person exam called an OSCE. It must be passed to receive permission to work in the UK. I was open to receiving any help I could get.
Norwich my home abroad
My dad and I spent a few days exploring Norwich together before he had to go back home. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the beginning of January is not the most ideal time to be moving to a country that is situated so closely to the North Pole. The days are shorter than any I’ve ever experienced. The dark makes the unfamiliar feel menacing. It was difficult to find the courage to go into a city I didn’t know, using a bus system that made no sense, with the dark creeping in as early as 3 in the afternoon.
But eventually Spring arrived and the days lengthened. The longer days gave me the chance to familiarize myself with my new home and I wasn’t disappointed. After living in the UK for 3 years, I’ve grown to love it and my new home Norwich.
If you’d like to read more about Norwich, I’ve written a little intro to my home abroad, and also a bit about the stony black heart of Norwich.
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