Time for a new chapter

On Friday I left my job by choice. After 7 years in beautiful Aotearoa it is time for a new adventure. It was a hard decision to make because this really is a wonderful place and we have been so happy here.

We arrived here knowing nothing and nobody. Making our life here has brought the four of us so closely together and has pushed each of us to be brave and strong which is something I am incredibly grateful for. My husband has fulfilled his firefighting dream and I have also been privileged to teach in a very special school- a place that has reinvigorated my love of teaching and has taught me so very much.

It would have been so easy to stay here forever but as a family we have never done things the easy way. What prompted this move was the realisation that the more we were becoming embedded here the quicker the years were starting to pass. When I wrote the date on the board and was politely reminded by a student that it was 2018 and not 2015, it got me thinking about how to slow down the passage of time. I wasted so much of my finite time in a blur of dark thoughts and anxiety that since I recovered, it has been my goal to squeeze as much as possible out of what is left.  Unfamiliar places, the new and the novel have the power to stretch out time and remembering this was a catalyst for the change, along the desire we all felt to be closer than a 24 hour plane ride to those we love the most.

We are heading home for a summer in sunny Blackpool before  our next adventure begins down in Berkshire- another place that we have never been and know nobody and it is exciting and scary and wonderful all at once.

Our time here has taught me so much about myself and I think I will always look back to this chapter as the one where I finally grew up and started to move towards being the person I aspire to be.

Thank you to the many friends, colleagues, students, team mates, coaches, teachers and neighbours who have made our time here so lovely. We have felt so welcome and will always look back on our time here with love and gratitude along with memories to treasure of this beautiful place and the people who live here.❤️