Start Today

Okay, dear readers, I have something important to share with you - the big news I've been hinting at for weeks but haven't yet been able to publicize.  To be honest, I've drafted this post a dozen times and have consistently failed to explain myself eloquently, and so I'm just going to put my announcement out there in black and white:

I quit my job and will be moving back to the United States at the end of May.

I've slowly been telling people (as appropriate) over the past weeks as my decision and its consequences have unfolded; the easiest way to explore what this means is probably to elaborate on the most frequently asked questions I've received.

What?  You quit your job?  Why?
I'm sure you'll understand that I can't answer this here, unfortunately.

But why do you have to move back to America?

I don't have to move back immediately, but my current non-sponsored visa expires in June and I am not, at the moment, eligible for another visa.  Unless I find another job in the UK that will go to bat for me, I have no choice but to return.

Okay, so find another job!

I'm working on it.

Alright, yes, getting hired in this economy is easier said than done.  Why don't you just get married?  Your boyfriend is British and you've been together for more than three years - isn't a spousal visa the next logical option?

Jon and I are, obviously, talking about the effect that being long-distance will have on our relationship and the strategies we can use to cope with what will be, inevitably, a difficult separation.  However, we're not willing to let bureaucratic complications dictate our relationship.  We're not ready to get married, and so we won't be fitting in a quickie ceremony before my visa expires just so I can stay in the country.  We have agreed that an ill-timed wedding of convenience would be more damaging to the long-term future of our relationship than a period of regular transatlantic flights.

I still don't understand.  London is the best city in the world.  I would move heaven and earth to live there.  How can you reject all of the options available to you that would let you stay in the UK?

London is an amazing city.  It is.  And I have been very happy here and I very much look forward to the day when I can move back and be happy here again.  But - and this is a big but - I don't think that happiness is geographical.  I firmly believe that I can belong to more than one place and I firmly believe that I can be happy in more than one place.  Yes, it's going to be incredibly difficult to pull up the roots that I have spent the past two years cultivating, but I'm not closing the book; I'm just starting a new chapter.  (Oh, man, I love me some mixed metaphors!)

Fine, I'll give you that.  But what will you do next?

In the short term: I will be off work this week and next and will be making at least one trip back to the States in the next 10 weeks to start the moving process.  My last day at the office is scheduled for 18 May.  I'll return to DC at the end of May and will move back in with my parents while I figure out what's going on.  In the long term: I really don't know!  It's really scary, to be honest, and I owe a big thank-you to Jon and my family and my friends for being such wonderful sources of support during this time.

via

  

Of course, I'll share all of my progress on this journey with you as it winds on, dear readers.  Wish me luck and strength and courage - I'll need it and you as we go on!