When I was younger, a friend invited me to move to Canada for six months to work as a waitress in Banff. I jumped at the opportunity, and within a couple of months, I’d resigned from my job in journalism, sold most of my worldly possessions, and said farewell to my friends and family.
I’ll never forget that feeling of driving out of my hometown of the Gold Coast, Australia, toward Brisbane, where I was departing from. I was 25 years old at the time, and so excited about the prospect of living abroad and setting out to explore the great big world.
I stayed overseas for three years before coming back to Australia
It was supposed to be a six-month working holiday, but plans changed, as they often do. My partner, Sam, joined me in Canada, and we ended up on quite the world tour, traveling through South and Central America, as well as the US, before moving to London for a year. We used London as a base and travelled through Europe and Africa.
Eventually, after three years overseas, Sam and I moved home to Australia. At that point, I had no desire to go back to the Gold Coast, which is where Sam and I originally met, so instead we settled in Melbourne — one of Australia’s most vibrant and cosmopolitan cities.
Melbourne will always hold a special place in my heart. It’s where two of our kids were born, where we started our businesses, and where we purchased our first family home. But after eight years of living there, we were ready for a tree change, and so we relocated to a small town called Bright in country Victoria four years ago to be closer to Sam’s family.
We visit my parents occasionally, and this last visit, something shifted for me
From time to time, I’d fly to my hometown of the Gold Coast to see my folks and old friends, but I felt relatively settled in Bright for the most part. We welcomed a third child in 2022, and made lifelong friends during our time living in country Victoria.
On my last visit to the Gold Coast in July, something shifted for me. I was sitting in a park with my dad, who is now 80, and he was telling me how much he loved me and that I had been a great daughter. I’d noticed a decline in his health on that trip, and that conversation somehow felt like a goodbye.
As I sat there holding his hand and watching my kids play nearby, it dawned on me that my time with my parents was running out. At 40, I had been living away from my folks for 15 years, and they had missed out on spending so much time with our children and me.
We decided to move to the Gold Coast for a year and see how it goes
When I flew back home to Bright, I broke the news to Sam. “I’d like to move to the Gold Coast next year, so I can be close to mum and dad,” I said one night at the dinner table. Poor Sam was pretty shocked at my sudden change in where I wanted to live. But the more I thought about it, the more desperate I was to make it happen.
And so, we eventually reached a compromise. We’re going to move the Gold Coast for 2026 and see how it goes. Our family will get to spend some quality time making memories with my folks, and we can decide whether it’s our “forever home” after we’ve given it a shot.
It’s a strange feeling to have come full circle and be heading back to where the story began. There’s no doubt I’ll miss our friends and family in Bright, and in that regard, the move feels bittersweet.
But I’m looking forward to showing our kids the experiences I loved growing up, and to living closer to my parents. At the end of the day, I don’t want to regret missing out on this time with them, particularly as they’re getting older.
For a time, I wondered if returning to my hometown would feel like taking a step backward. However, I’ve come to realize that we only get one life, and sometimes the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.
Do you have a story to share about moving to be closer to family? Contact Rosemary Donahue at [email protected].
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