Lauren Kicknosway is a 44-year-old Gen X-er who traded in her water- logged life in Seattle for the beaches and sunshine of Sydney, Australia. She has a Bachelor of Science in neurobiology from the University of Washington, but hung up her lab coat to work full-time on her blog Sydney Moving Guide, where she helps other expats make the move to Australia.
I was sixteen when I got my first taste of living abroad. The summer before my sophomore year of high school I joined the American Field Service and was placed with a family in Argentina. I was so excited to spend my summer vacation bumming around Argentina. Boy, was I wrong. Instead, I ended up back in school for the next three months. That’s right. It’s not just the seasons that are flipped in the Southern Hemisphere but the school term, too.
I was horribly disappointed then but, looking back on it now, going to school was one of the only ways I made friends my age in that short period of time. In fact, I was able to celebrate my sixteenth birthday in Argentina with my classmates making it an extra special birthday. If I had not been going to school, making friends, it would have been a very different celebration.
It was the summer of 1986. The same summer Argentina won the World Cup, another unforgettable experience for a sixteen year old living abroad. Also a little frightening as crowds of people poured out into the streets, shouting, crying and hugging each other. Everyone chanting in unison “Ma-ra-dona, Ma-ra-dona” for Diego Maradona, the famous Argentine footballer, now considered the greatest football player of all time.
It was probably in that moment, the perfect combination of fear, adrenalin and joy that flipped a switch in me. Being an expat is not the same as being traveler. Even those who embrace slow travel. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been traveling, you will at some point return home and back to “normal” life.
Taking that step to live abroad is taking that “normal” life and flipping it on its head. It’s finding a job, a home, figuring out public transport, opening a bank account, finding a good school for the kids, grocery shopping and making new friends. It’s taking all the boring stuff of everyday life that you wade through week after week, month after month, and shaking it up.
It always cracks me up whenever we go back to Seattle for a visit. Without question we will meet a friend of a friend that has recently been to Australia. They always ask if we have been here or done that. Often our answer is no. Their jaw drops then they ask, “Well, what have you been doing in Australia?” Ah…working. Ya know, living day-to-day in one of the most amazing cities on the planet.
My experience in Argentina made it a no brainer when the opportunity came up to move to Sydney, Australia.
Australia, Argentina, France, U.K., Germany, Thailand, Vietnam, it didn’t really matter where; living abroad was always a ‘hell yes’ for me.
What also made it a no brainer was how easily everything seemed to fall into place. From a recruiter contacting my husband about a job in Sydney to me landing a job with a research institute from a phone interview. When things fall into place with little effort, turning your back and walking away just isn’t an option.
Our friends and family were stunned by our decision. “But Australia is SO far away.” We heard this over and over. Or the other one was, “how can you move to some place you’ve never been?” In fact, at our going away party one of my husband’s friends took him aside and said, “You’re not seriously going through with this, are you?”
His disbelief was equally matched by our disbelief that he would move overseas if given the opportunity. Not even consider it for a second. That was strange to us.
