Come back from Australia – The return to reality. Hello everyone! I’m back now. It’s been 2 months I came back from Australia, as a good little soldier reintegrated into society.I have been indeed pretty lucky at my return, because even though I was not really sure I wanted to go back towhat I left in terms of career, I quickly found a new job.Come back from australia : how you feel when you’re back
Come back from Australia : how does it feel ?
You ask questions to yourself : a lot of questions
Indeed, as you maybe know from my previous article just before coming back, I was already a bit clueless regarding what to when back, my career, etc. After traveling I was not very sure of what I wanted to do in life : back to marketing and its routine “transports – work – sleep”? Create my own company for my jewelry creations? Convert to art? Live a nomad life, from various jobs & travels?
So many questions that have been in my reformatted mind since back from down under, and still present today.
F R E E D O M
A nice thing to know and that might make you feel better : a long travel can be an advantage to seduce recruiters
I was afraid that before leaving to Australia that one year of travelling would leave a hole in my CV … I can see now that on the contrary it attracted recruiters who recognize the courage for taking this risk and like that you have a good English. Again, I found a job in Marketing without a hassle. I was lucky to come across a digital communication team from an agency seeking a junior profile in emergency. Called at 11am in the morning for an interview at 14h, I was in the office the next morning for my 1st day! INCREDIBLE … I realize I’m super lucky.
So finally, technically it’s not so hard to be back… but… let’s be honnest you quickly miss travelling.
But… dear Australia. You’ve been discreet at first and now you let me think about you again. Travelling is a virus. It was so nice though to see my friends, my family, enjoy good French food, good cocktail evenings, the pleasure of having a good job again … Yes … all this, was nice, but more at the BEGINNING. Now I miss travelling again… will this go away? I hope so.
First, I tried to see it on the bright side. Give a smile, you’ll have it back. People in Paris were not as rude I used to think they were. Maybe since I traveled and I am more opened mind and I release better waves…and people send them back to me. I find that people are finally mostly very kind in Paris… of course there are still idiots stressed in the transports, frustrated sellers in shops, etc. But I found it less obvious than before …
But now, TIC, TAC, 2 months … it was the length of this phase of euphoria. Now I start to have elsewhere desires again, nature, constant sunshine, growth in the country, zen people with their heart on their hand, companies that respect the fundamental principle of well-being: having a clear border between private and professional life.
What i have realized about work culture when back
It is true that in France, there is a well established “principle” saying that a good employee is an employee who works LONG. Here, and that’s a shame, you get judged more on the time you spend in the office than on the work you’re actually doing …
Result, if you don’t literally live for your work, you develop a complex about it, whether you’re competent or not. And this leads to being not happy. And stressed.
But I know it’s not the same everywhere.
We do not realize why we are stressed, because this is “NORMAL”. But we spend our time working, or in the transports filled with stressed people (that I can understand).
So we go over 12h (14h-15h for some) outside our home. That leaves what : time to wake up in the morning, take a quick breakfast (because we get up later to enjoy our necessary restorative sleep), transport, work, transport, and we go home, we have dinner, we take a shower and we go to bed. HELP!
But it’s not everywhere like that … Another life exists in unique companies or countries that respect the fact that a person who wants to LIVE aside of his work, even during the week, can also be a good employee, involved in his work and competent!
Unique companies or countries full of people who see work as a WAY TO FINANCE THEIR LIFE first and not as THE CENTER OF THEIR LIVES. That makes all the difference.
So I think more and more in my new medium-term project: go abroad. For good this time. I wanna see other cultures, other ways of living. Something less hectic than Paris.
I think about it slowly. I’m not there, yet. I enjoy my new job, I see my friends & family… and I make a point in a few months.
If the desire is still there, it’s a safe bet that I start the machine again.
Wish me luck!
Some ways of thinking I advise you to have
Remember that time flies, life is long and short at once.
Enjoy your life, say I love you to the people who matter to you, do not live your present preparing a future that is uncertain (who knows what can happen tomorrow?)
Enjoy every moment, listen to yourself, share with others.
ROCK your life, live your dreams and stop dreaming your life : EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
Yes, everything, I am sure about it. Believe me, just bring your courage waves together in both hands and go!
You may fall but you flew higher than you ever did before, and this height gave you a new angle of view, opened other horizons;
Small step by small step, we can all keep a constant feeling of happiness, adapting how wesee every moment of life. We all get born, and we all die one day, that’s the only two constants of humanity, the two things we really own and we are sure about.
What we do in between, no one should interfere in the way we want to handle it … At the end of the day, nobody is watching us. Nobody looks at us and judge us, no dictates of society are really true. We are free birds. Be good and find a meaning to your live, living with no regrets, intensely and deeply.
PEACE <3
Photos credits : Francesca Tirico