Trust Yourself, You Did The Right Thing

 

For what it’s worth I have found there is some commonness in the severity levels of events and how we humans respond to them.

One scale said that the following events stressed humans more than others (Laid out in order of their severity):

1. Death of a loved one.
2. Divorce.
3. Moving.
4. Major illness or injury.
5. Job loss.

I, for one have suffered all these traumas and I’m certain there are those among you who have suffered some or all as well.

I mention this scale because I am convinced that few people appreciate what a trauma ‘moving home’ is. Greater still would be moving home to another country.

This is where ‘South Africans Moving to Ireland (SA2 Eire)’ features. I am most grateful for the people who founded and manage this site. To say nothing of those that populate it with their stories and requests.

For those that have born the struggle of severely rearranging their lives to move to Ireland, they will find this site an oasis after the desert storm. Yet, there is much more to come – it is often said that it takes at least two years to properly settle into a new country. I have moved countries four times. The first two, with my parents (in other words, I had no choice.) The second two have been with my acceptance.

But this time my wife and I have left family behind. In my case a large family. Thankfully, we have family in Ireland, this helped us immensely. But when you leave behind children and grandchildren……..

There are some things that now become reality; Moving house is a trauma, moving country is a trauma, leaving family behind is a trauma.

You will be asking yourself, “Have I done the right thing? The differences between your adopted country and the land where you were birthed are many. In my scholarly youth there was a saying, “Comparison is odious.” I’d like to say, comparison is destructive!

Some years back I went to England on a project lasting six months. Almost all those I spoke to in South Africa said, “You’ll never manage the weather.” I have a philosophy, “Everywhere you go, always take your weather with you.” I loved the people, I loved the culture, loved the weather – no matter how different, I loved the first world! I was raised in Sub Saharan Africa……there is NO COMPARISON.

Did you do the right thing? Of course you did, now go ahead and love being Irish!

I will bring you some more up ahead, simply because I want to encourage you.