Coming into 2018, I knew I wanted to make some major changes towards a more sustainable lifestyle. I mentioned in my first ever Editor’s Letter here that I had started feeling a bit like a hamster on a wheel these past few years. I was running a never ending marathon of one project after the next, cross continent travels, a packing and unpacking song and dance routine, and exhausting myself in the process. It hit me like a ton of bricks when I finally slowed down in September. You see, when a professional juggler crashes, so do all the items in the air.
But how and in what way could I really change this?! I didn’t necessarily want to leave New York after working so damn hard to be here these past 9 years. But I knew deep down it was part of the problem. In New York, you are what you do. The word of the city is “achieve”. So in essence, you are always striving, and never really content. This is only exasperated when you work for yourself because entrepreneurs in general are never really off. So how can one ever be off, when they run their own business, in the city that never sleeps?! Are you catching my drift ha?!
My epiphany dawned on me over lunch with my friend Katie Sturino of The 12ish Style sometime back in February. I was explaining to her how overwhelmed and restless I felt and she looked at me point blank as if the answer was clear as day. She said “You need a change. You need to do your version of the The Holiday.” She didn’t mean any old holiday, but rather the film The Holiday, where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet swap their homes in LA and London for winter break haha! Katie may not know it now, but she planted the seed that day. In March I booked a mini break to London to explore my options and I was sold.
Truth be told, London has been calling me for quite sometime now. I did my first ever summer study abroad in London after my sophomore year in high school and it was love at first sight. I adored the people, the humour, the music, the fashion, the accent (naturally), the history, and the proximity to so many incredible destinations in Europe. That was a summer of firsts for me and I promised myself one day I would go back as a “local”. Well that day is today.
In a somewhat serendipitous twist of fate, a former client of mine turned friend, had a room for rent in Mayfair this summer and I scooped it up. In the words of the incredible Elizabeth Gilbert “There’s a wonderful old Italian joke about a poor man who goes to church every day and prays before the statue of a great saint, begging, “Dear saint-please, please, please…give me the grace to win the lottery.” Finally the exasperated statue comes to life, looks down at the begging man and says in weary disgust, “My son-please, please, please…buy a ticket.” And so I did!
I’m so ridiculously, over-the-moon excited about my summer sabbatical in London and can’t wait to see how I come out the other side. I know it’s not a permanent move but it is still the longest period of time I will be away from New York consecutively since moving here in August 2009. Surely some new adventures await. And with that, it’s time to get packing and wrap my deadlines. See you all in Europe, my loves.
Meagan xx
