How I Got Here

A 48-centimeter snowfall in Minnesota, USA. Women's size NZ 10 shoe for reference.

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Before I delve into this article which includes references to Minnesota, I need to draw your attention to what's happening in the state right now as the legacy news media is not adequately reporting the reality of the situation.

Per Stand with Minnesota: "Across Minnesota, ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] continues to stop, harass, and detain people regardless of their citizenship status. Normal life in Minnesota has been interrupted, as schools have been forced to close or go virtual, as people live in fear of leaving their homes or going to work. Minnesotans are organized and activated to respond to this violence. But they need our help."

Visit Stand with Minnesota to learn more from verified Minnesota news sources, read Minnesotans' testimonies, and learn how to support Minnesotans from afar.

Thank you for learning more and supporting if you can.

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Growing up, our Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA school district offered foreign language courses starting in seventh grade - the school year students turn 13 years old. I chose to take French and continued taking courses through my freshman year of university. During that time, I dreamt of becoming fluent - perhaps in several languages, traveling and living all over the world, and working in international business.

While attending the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, my priorities shifted. I decided to move into an apartment and take on those kinds of responsibilities sooner than later, so I missed my opportunity to study abroad. After university, my focus was on getting an internship and then a job. All of a sudden I was in my late-20s, still living in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area, and...depressed.

Not only had I not explored the world, but I had followed others' safe advice instead of following my heart and felt trapped. Additionally, my friends were starting to have kids, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I felt even more out-of-place and lonely.

So, I went to work trying to relocate to the West Coast. I had been working in marketing and communications at what was the Saint Paul, Minnesota downtown association at the time (the organisation dissolved after I moved) and got hired at the Downtown Seattle Association in a similar role after several months of networking.

Everything I took with me when I moved from Minneapolis to Seattle Tetris-ed to the top of my Honda Element.

I remember driving away from Minneapolis-Saint Paul with an acute sense of excitement combined with the slight nervousness (but in a good way) of stepping into the unknown similar to how I felt when I left for university.

I arrived in Seattle on December 1, 2009. Despite not knowing anyone and it being the coldest and darkest time of year, I was elated! I was so excited over the littlest things:

• How lush Seattle is, even in winter,

• How there's a real spring with lots of blooming flowers over multiple weeks (in Minnesota, "spring" is a month of brown and mud until full-blown summer sets in),

• How much public art is everywhere (e.g., manhole covers),

• How Seattle has all the transportation vehicles (OK, yeah: bus, light rail, commuter train, Amtrak; OK, YEAH!: monorail, ferry, water taxi, and a high-speed catamaran to Victoria, British Columbia),

• The wide array of arts and cultural offerings from the standard to the very quirky,

• And more.

(This might also be the appropriate time to add I am a huge nerd that gets really excited over stuff.)

One of my previous dogs, a rescued racing Greyhound named Lucy, and me at the rescue Greyhound Pets, Inc.'s Greyt Walkathon fundraising event at Gasworks Park in Seattle.

Over the following years, I grew professionally and changed fields once, bought a home, adopted dogs (huge dog lover), got married to Ted, started traveling more, completed a major home addition project, and more. It's been great.

The call to move abroad has popped up here and there over the years. Traveling isn't the same; it doesn't evoke the stepping into the unknown and new-home excitement I described above.

Between needing to always be working toward the next big thing/adventure and reaching the age of "it's either try now or risk not being able to later," we decided to start looking into immigrating somewhere. I asked Ted where he might have interest living, and he mentioned New Zealand or Australia. While I am excited to visit Australia at some point, New Zealand seems more our speed/style, so that's where I started researching and planning our next big trip...which is three weeks away at this point!

Admittedly, Ted is not 100% onboard at this point. Between being a military brat growing up and then being in the military himself (US Navy), he doesn't like getting uprooted anymore. Everyone tells me he will be sold on the idea after we visit, though.

So, that's how we got to where we are today. Wish me luck in the Ted-persuasion department!