Moving Abroad, Unintentional Rhymes, and Beyonce Lyrics

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Let's get real with each other for a second.

I feel like I can be open with you for some reason--that reason largely being due to the fact that if you are reading this, that would make you either my mom, sister, or husband.  Or maybe some random student that was tasked with learning the history behind Dublin Street names (which I'm sure is a thing) and a Google search led you here, in which case, welcome to this space (unintentional rhyme, that's the kind of crazy shit that happens on this blog so you should probably bookmark this page).

Things have been strange lately.  Strange in a good way, but also strange in other ways that sometimes don't always feel like they are good ways (got to love sentences that make perfect sense).

My husband and I were finally able to send in the paperwork for him to get the conditions on his green card lifted, and finally become an unconditional permanent resident.  In case you, like most people on this planet, have no idea what that means, it basically means that over the course of the past 3 years, I have payed the US government thousands of dollars so that I can live in the same country as my husband.  Who says romance is dead people??

More importantly what it means, is that once everything is approved, we will no longer have to live in the US if we don't want to.  We will be free to roam about the country world.

Because it makes perfect sense to pay an exorbitant amount of money in order to be able to live in the United States, just to leave at the first chance you get.  Funnily enough this did and does somehow make the most sense.

The plan is that D will start school in Ireland in the fall, which is honestly the most exciting thing, for both of us.  Ireland has this thing call "Free Fees" which means that if you attend a public university, the government will cover your tuition fees.  Brilliant.  We also just applied for a grant to cover the rest of the university fees--there is a small annual fee called the "student contribution fee" that is in addition to the tuition fee, which the student is responsible for paying, but which hopefully the grant will and should cover.  In case you were wondering yes, I am the expert in the Irish University system, and yes, you should be extremely jealous.  Bow down bitches.

And all of that is amazing.  All of that feels incredible.

The only thing that comes into question is, my job.  You see, it just so happens that I just got promoted.  A promotion that I should have gotten, probably over a year ago.  But don't worry, I'm not bitter.   And I like my job, I really do.  I love the people I work with, I love that I actually get to do what I studied in school.  Honestly if I could have hand picked the career I wanted, I feel like this would have been it.  Either this or being a professional tennis player.  (Looking back, I definitely made the wrong choice).

My master plan, the plan to end all plans, is to somehow convince my current company that they can't live without me.  That they should allow me to work remotely, and continue to do what I do.  It will basically be exactly the same as it is now, except for the fact that I will be in Dublin instead of at my desk.  Surely that should not raise any concerns.

The thing is, it is actually not the most ridiculous idea.  We have other people within the company that work remotely.  My new role involves working on our UK/international business.  Most of the work I do is done on a computer.  Add in the fact that I have been a pretty amazing employee (if I do say so myself) for the past three years, and I think I might somewhat have a slight chance of making my plan work?

Honestly, I think it is 50/50.  Or maybe 40/60.  Ok I think we can both settle on 30/70.

I was talking to my dad about all of this a few weeks ago, and he brought up a really good point.  A point that was made all the more brilliant coming from his logical, rational brain.  At some point, we have to just decide that we are going to make the move over to Ireland.  Regardless of what happens with my job, regardless of what deal I can work out, we just have to do it.

And that's the thing about these huge, life changing events and decisions.  We are never ready to make them.  We never have all of our shit together.  And we just never will.  You kind of have to do what feels right.  Do what feels like it will take you one step closer to living the life you want for yourself.

So that is why things are feeling a bit strange at the moment.  I really think it is a good type of strange.

You know what, it definitely is.