One year later
Another day, another door
It’s been just over a year, 15 months actually since I started this blog, and I wrote 19 posts. I’d planned for 24 posts in 12 months, roughly 2 posts per month, but I’m pretty happy with 19. In the course of a year, Luke and I travelled up Portugal’s coastline looking for a town or city to live in. We settled on a city up north. We found an apartment, bought a car and moved all our stuff and our animals over. I wrote up 10 crochet patterns and reopened my Etsy shop. I started this blog and then found someone to help me translate it all into Portuguese. Thanks Julia! I completed a TEFL course and started teaching English online. When I’d gained enough experience, I applied to teach English on a second platform and now I’m earning a little more. I just achieved an overall 5/5 star rating on Cambly!! I learned how to paint furniture. And, I got my Portuguese residency card.
Nothing MAJOR but all significant. All things that kept me moving, all things that have stimulated my brain, challenged my creativity and kept me occupied.
I don’t think these things would be enough for a lot of doctors leaving medicine. I don’t think they’re quite ambitious enough or academically challenging enough to satisfy your average high achiever. (There’s a juxtaposition for you.) But, I was so burnt out in medicine, that my main goal for my next role was work-life balance and a break from any major responsibilities. I have that and I’m enjoying it.
Anywho, I thought I’d do the thing and look back on my year and lay it all out in a nice little list of achievements. I had hoped to do a few more things; finish another furniture painting project, write a few more blog posts, write up more crochet patterns, read more books, do yoga most days, basically just do more of what I’ve done, but that can be my target for the next year. The nice thing about living in Europe is the slow pace of life and the luxury of working to live and not the other way around. I just need to learn to take some of the pressure off and let myself enjoy things as they are.
Wishing you all a Happy New Year! May we start it with our best foot forward. 😀
