As odd as it seems to say, it has been nearly 6 months since the Mutton family made the interstate move from New South Wales to Western Australia. It certainly doesn’t feel like that long but when you are busy setting up and adjusting to big changes in life, time can definitely get away from you.
Having already made the move from England to Australia (some eleven years ago now!), many people would think a ‘little’ interstate move would be no great worry but actually, it was a much harder thing to contemplate. When we left the UK we were fresh faced 24 year-olds with little commitment except to each other. Fast forward ten years, add two kids, a dog, some mental health issues and a decade’s worth of settling in, making friends and establishing connections and suddenly moving is a great deal harder to contemplate.
Truth be told, when Sarah emailed me out of the blue to say she’d seen a job in Albany, WA and asked what I thought about moving my initial reaction was one of excitement. I had already told her previously that I would follow her anywhere after all. That excitement was followed in short order by quite a large dose of fear. What would happen if the kids didn’t like a new school? Couldn’t make friends? What if we broke them? Already struggling with my mental health, I wondered what would happen if I left my running club and friends group behind. Was it a poor financial decision to sell our house and expect to be able to come back in a few years and pick up where we left off? All big questions and at one point I was tipping towards not leaving.
Perhaps unsurprisingly to anyone who knows us as a couple, it was Sarah that helped me settle my mind and find the path through to acceptance of the idea. One thing she said stuck with me, “If we don’t want to do it, let’s not, but we shouldn’t not do it because we’re afraid of it.” And it was that idea of not avoiding what I was afraid of and instead embracing some change and the positive opportunities that brought me round. By the time we moved, I was completely at peace with the idea; raring to go even.
The first six months has provided plenty of new experiences for everyone too. The boys are settled into Montessori school which is quite different to the public school they attended before, but it is the perfect environment for them. I’m extremely proud of how well they settled in and embraced it actually, setting an example for me. Albany itself suits us as a family really well; everything we need is available without much travel, the coastline and running routes are beautiful, we were able to buy an amazing house much cheaper than in NSW, there are (importantly) a bunch of nice cafes and coffee shops and the vibe of the town is relaxed and slower than a bigger city. It has all the benefits of a small town and few of the downsides. So far anyway. Six months is early days really, but I have no complaints, except maybe the wind. Albany has a windfarm for a reason!
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