Not the Same River

Sometimes, the first day of something is easy to identify: the first day of school or a job, a new car, a trip. Other “first” days are only in hindsight – when you realize, in retrospect, how the week you decided to casually start a small habit (ie, flossing your teeth or doing ten minutes of mediation every day) led to a series of much bigger life changes.

In our hearts and minds, our relocation began in October of 2023, when we decided to commit to the offer to transfer to the UK for Dylan’s job. It was a challenging decision, one that for me continues to be bittersweet, but one we were ultimately excited about. Cue NINE MONTHS of waiting, wondering when something would happen (by the way, this is a severely truncated summary of the rough emotional landscape of this period). Suddenly, the line graph of our expectation-to-action ratio shot up significantly about five weeks ago when the immigration lawyers were handed our case. A month ago we submitted visa applications – yay! But, still more waiting. Time was passing quickly, meanwhile commitment to things like plane tickets, housing (in the UK), what to do with our house, all were in an increasingly fraught liminal stage of indecision.

Then last week – it arrived: the email that said they were ready for us to book our biometrics appointment and make the final decision on our visas. We booked the soonest possible appointment we could get. So, as these things go, I decided that today, the day we were fingerprinted, photographed, and handed over our passports, was the real “first” day of this move. Here we are.

I want to record this process as best as possible – to capture the logistics and drama of conducting an international move, the things we are doing as we say goodbye to the places and people we call home, with the added bonus of life with a five-year-old.