I moved to Australia for a better life. Six years later, I think I’ve made a terrible mistake
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I traded my social life to reach my own personal goals. Now I’m starting to realize that achieving your dreams ain’t all it’s cracked up to be unless you have people to share it with.
As a child of parents with mixed citizenships and cultural heritages, I spent the earlier years of my life moving backward and forward between Greece, where I was born, and Australia, my mother’s homeland.
Although I had already been to Sydney, my mother’s hometown, quite a few times already, my first memories of the city are from when I was ten years old. The place changed me. Compared to Greece, everything was bigger, fancier, and more advanced. The experience literally opened up my eyes and helped me understand what else is out there and since then, I’ve been a huge fan of travel.
Unfortunately, due to personal and mainly financial issues, I wasn’t able to return to Sydney ever since that time. I would struggle for years, literally seeing the city in my dreams now and again and remembering all the awesome places I had visited during my time there. The experience left a real mark on me and I had a strong desire to return to — the place that I called — home for a long, long time.
Eventually, I began to make a plan: I would stay in Greece until my late 20s have all my fun, then go to Australia and settle down for good. That still gave me enough time to pursue a respectable career for myself and make a good living.
Coming home
Despite many difficulties and thanks to various different factors and people who helped me along the way, I was able to make that plan a reality. I initially moved to Melbourne, which was cheaper, making the transition easier, then a couple of years (and a lockdown!) later, I made my way to Sydney.
I was fortunate with work as well. What I was never able to do in Greece, I’ve had more than enough room to achieve in Australia and now I can even go as far as to call myself “accomplished”.
