I’m rachael. I write about finding yourself + Your confidence after a big move.
I say doing the messy, uncomfortable work helps.
Ever since I was young I felt an incredible pull to travel and explore the world. There was a glamour and a mind-opening excitement there for me. For many years, the closest I got to travel was all the times my mom and I would move to a new apartment. Finally, with a dream and very little money, I made my way to New York City from my home in Western New York. Shortly after that, when the stress of working so much to afford NYC became enough, I moved to Toronto, Canada (not cheaper, but closer to home). Those moves were created by an intense urge to reject the daily routines of my life, escape my mistakes, and a desire to find some kind of contentment.
Once I found that contentment through a lot of personal development work, coaching, and time alone, life threw in another surprise. I realized I was in love with and wanted to be with a college friend - who happened to live in Dubai.
4 months after that realization, we were engaged, and 3 months after that we got married and I hopped on a plane to the desert. It wasn’t the plan I had, but it felt right. I figured this move would be just like the other ones, only a little bit further away.
But about two and a half months into the move, a depression set in I hadn’t felt in years…
I was a woman who worked a job since she was 15, who found identity in productivity even when I didn’t love the work. I had no idea how to be the kind of wife I always imagined. I had no friends around me, and no real support system or blueprint for how I was supposed to make sense of living away from everything familiar. I knew people did it all the time but I needed to know:
How could I feel like myself again? Why could I do it before without even thinking? Was I going to totally mess this up?
Luckily, I remembered that I had carried myself out of feeling this way before. All that personal development work could now be put to a new test. And, using everything I knew and learned, I found answers. Not ALL the answers, but all the next right steps I needed to take.
That’s how my book - At Home Anywhere was written in under 3 months. That’s how Women Connect Abroad, a local friendship creating event in Dubai was created.
Sometimes the most uncomfortable situations create massive opportunities for us to be more of who we’ve always wanted to be.
