Australia

Oh Australia…

Oh how I love me some Australia.

And the crazy part is, I never knew I wanted to go.

Until I was on a lunch break from my post college, unpaid physical therapy internship and I realized how badly I wanted to go on an adventure and not return to my internship, to my job waiting tables, to my morning workout routine of running down the same one-lane highway. I think it was a combination of the repetitive lifestyle I was living, me receiving the news that my best friend was moving to Spain to teach elementary education the week prior, and talking to a few friends and acquaintances along my journey that had briefly mentioned their time abroad. All of this was in my subconscious mind fighting its way to the surface. I think I’ve had it in me, the desire to travel, the passion for life, for a long time now but in that 15 minute lunch break it’s like my subconscious hunger for more life finally made it to the surface, ravenous an adventure, like someone who had been underwater for ten seconds too long and finally took a breath.

I will never forget sitting on my swinging bed on the screen porch out back, on my 15 minute break, making the decision. I was going to go. I didn’t know where, I didn’t know how, but I did know there was no way in hell that I was going to waste my 20’s away, the “best years of my life” sitting on a swinging bed and dreading going back to work, to my internship, to the same bar every Saturday. I wanted a new bar. I wanted a new morning run. I wanted new boys, a new scene.

I grabbed my computer and typed in the search bar “ways to live in another country for free”. I shit you not. My host parents still get a kick out of that. When I hit enter a ton of pages came up, mostly advertisements, so I scrolled down to the first one that didn’t have “ad” in fine print and clicked on it. I remember it like yesterday, reading a list of pros and cons of living in various countries. I huge deciding factor for me was that I didn’t speak a second language and as much as I wanted to learn one, moving abroad would have many challenges already, I wasn’t quite ready to add language barrier to the list. So from there the website provided a list of countries that spoke English. And at the very top (it was in alphabetical order) I read, “AUSTRALIA”. And that was that. I was moving to Australia. I was so excited and had about 10 minutes left on my break. I reverted back to the search bar and googled “ways to live in Australia for free”. I scrolled by the ads, and came to a website with an application. I didn’t know what for but I was so limited on time and it was a practice run anyways. There was no way this was actually going to work but let’s do it anyways type of thing. I began checking boxes of attributes and skills I possessed.

“Good with children”

“CPR certified”

“Speaks fluent English”

I typed up a little bio. I mean little. 3 sentences maximum, proper grammar— doesn’t exist.. Remember, it was practice. And I was about to be late to my internship. Finally it asked for an email so I filled in the last blank, and hit submit. I closed up my laptop, put my shoes on and didn’t give it a second thought.. until I got home that night and checked my email.

There was a response.

Not an automated response, but a very personal one. From a woman named Claire that ran an au pair (nanny) agency called “Niche Au Pairs”. So I emailed her back. And she emailed me back. And I emailed her back. And like four emails later we set up a Skype interview.

And before I knew it, I was moving to Australia.