So here we are, 2011

It all started ten years ago.  I was a twenty-two year old undergrad studying abroad at the University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia.  I knew back then that I would like Australia.  What I didn’t expect, however, was how that experience would profoundly shape everything afterward.  The autonomy I had garnered through my experience was like nothing I had ever felt.  The encounter was one of the most empowering moments of my life.

After leaving Australia in July 2001, I knew that I wanted to return there for an extended period of time.  How to do this was a more difficult feat.  It’s hard to scrape up enough money to move abroad, when you are a college student… or even afterward when you are just beginning your career.  I ran into problems at immigration, thinking that after I received my teaching license, I could teach in Australia.  Bottom line: I couldn’t get a work visa without a job.  I couldn’t get a job without a work visa.  I literally researched for years ways to return to Australia.
The dream was still there, but I put it on the shelf while I instead focused on my budding teaching career in the Twin Cities metro area.
For years, I spent every summer traveling abroad.  Four years ago, I traveled to Ecuador and met another American that was earning her undergraduate degree in Australia.  The thought that I could complete a degree program in another country hadn’t really ever occurred to me.  I had always planned to return to school to earn my doctoral degree.  Wait, I could do this in Australia…
I spent the next four years teaching and preparing to attend graduate school.  The process for returning to school in another country is a second job in itself.  University bureaucracy compounded with government bureaucracy from two separate countries means one thing: waiting is inevitable and you must allow yourself ample time to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. 
So here we are, 2011.  I’m heading back to study at the University of Melbourne for at least three years to earn my Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.), come July.  I feel super excited-nervous-ambitious-terrified, all wrapped into one neurotic package.
It’s going to be hard to leave my life here in Minneapolis.  I love my job, love my neighborhood, love the seasons (with the exception of winter), etc.  There are days when I wonder if this is a good decision.  However, I remind myself that change is hard, but I can’t ignore the visceral feeling that returning to Australia is what I need to do.
Here I go.  It’s really happening.  She’ll be right.