Tuesday 19 January 2016

7 Years

Today marks 7 years of living in Australia. On January 19th, 2009, my wife and I stepped onto Australian shores for the very first time in Brisbane. There are many reasons why we decided to move to Australia, and many of our friends have left too, but many have decided to stay and I don't need to go into the reasons why we moved here in this post. I thought I would rather mention some of the reasons why we love being in Australia and love being Australians.


Opportunities
Australia has allowed me to change careers and become a teacher (which I absolutely love). We arrived in Brisbane with roughly $5000 to start again at the age of about 30. The first six months were tough for us, we had to adapt and take any work we could. I had left a well-paid Logistic Manager job, and Jacqui her teaching position of 4 years. I took a job at Cash Converters and Jacqui did relief teaching, and soon we started finding our feet. I decided to change careers and started doing my Post-Graduate Teaching Diploma. Now 5 years into teaching, it has been an amazing change and journey. Now we are both studying again, both doing our Education Masters and looking forward to the next opportunities that unfold.

Little Miracle
We tried to have our first baby through IVF in South Africa twice, both times it failed. After just over a year in Brisbane we had the opportunity to try again, and with government funding for part of it, and we had a miracle. We were a long shot for it working, but in April 2010 while I was on my first ever teaching practicum we found out that Jacqui was pregnant. Our little miracle baby arrived just before New Years on the 30th of December. She is a born and bred Australian, even had her Australian citizenship before us. Now she starts Prep in just over a week and our next chapter with this awesome little girl begins.

Freedom & Safety
Australia is a country that has an incredibly low rate of crime and violence, and we have never felt so safe and relaxed. Living in South Africa before we moved over here is hard to describe, as the intense fear, suspicion, nervousness and distrust is hard to convey in words. Since living here we have outdoors to enjoy, parks and public events, and so much more without the nagging fear that we experienced in South Africa. Many of our friends and family are still there, and they view and experience it differently to how we remember it. Here we are happy and grateful for our lifestyle we can experience.

Future
We look to a future here; where our daughter will grow up and pave her own way; where we will eventually buy a house of our own (after some serious saving for many years), and to where our journey will take us. We are Australians, we are proud to be part of this great nation and how we can contribute to this wonderful country. We are thankful for being part of this great nation, and though we will never forget our roots in South Africa, our friends and family, and memories; we love living in this great country we now call home.

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