This is the very first blog post I write in Silver Bloggers. A community I only just discovered.
To be very honest, I don't even know anything about the project where the question was posted. So I will have to do the research now hehe. That's how things can go!
But I was brought there by this question. They didn't require to write a post with an answer, just an answer in the comments, but I felt compelled to do so anyway. "Where would you like to go most?" Until a little while ago, I had a very clear answer to any question like it. Until now...
Source Made in LunaPic
In November 2019, after spending an amazing time in Thailand with the kids, and a lovely group of Hive people, after not having been there for more than 20 years, we had a good talk, and we decided we wouldn't stay in Ireland much longer. Since Thailand wasn't the easiest country to get residency in, my friend in Cambodia suggested coming there. He lives near the border with Thailand, with just the river dividing the two countries.
Cambodia has very simple immigration rules, or 'bendy' rules, so it just made sense that we'd go there. We all know what happened...
I have to admit, I felt sick. I was quite upset for a while, because I already had quite a strong feeling that this 'thing' wouldn't be over in a few weeks.
I needed a plan B, and Ireland wasn't it. It definitely wasn't.
I felt lost for a while. At least a month or two. We rolled from one lockdown into the next, and everything was just hopeless and overwhelming to me. Just the thought that we'd be stuck in Ireland for an uncertain time, made me want to hurl myself into a ball and cry.
The deeply connected feeling, and deep love I have for Thailand can't easily be put into words. It's a feeling, it's emotions...how can you explain it to someone unless they've felt it themselves? At times, in the years I was away from the country, it felt like I'd lost a limb. A part of me. That feeling that I needed to be there in order to feel like I was whole. Maybe it's comparable to that one dog, or cat, or other pet, that you had in your life, that was special. Not that you never loved others after or before, but this one was different. The one that you'd just never forget. Kinda like that. I know that my children felt it too when they were there. I know now, because they never stopped talking about their time there... My 12 year old keeps telling me that he'll move there when he's grown up. If anything, I would call Thailand my soul country, or soul place. South East Asia is special. Thailand is more special to me. But they go hand in hand, obviously.
I'm not sure when Mexico came onto my radar exactly. I know I had been talking to friends who lived here, or were moving here, or those who visited frequently.
Then somehow the country kept coming back up in conversations, and I'd accidentally (was it though?) see something about it in videos, or even commercials.
All of a sudden this ad would pop up about Mexico, or the kids would turn on Coco on TV...
I remembered the few times I went to Tijuana when I had to do Visa runs from the US, and those memories were fond ones. The people I'd met, the times I'd spend just walking around, for hours... Taking it all in. The culture, the weather, the people... I guess that's when I started to actively find more information, read more about different places in Mexico, and did the research about all things Mexican.
Not much longer before I had my answer: Mexico was our plan B.
It took a little while convincing the kids about the same but once I showed them more, and told them more, they were sold to the idea of moving to Mexico.
I can't quite remember when exactly we made the decision to move here, but it was less than a year before we came here. I trusted that everything would fall into place for us if it was meant to be. Of course, I worked hard to get things done but in the end, everything did fall into place exactly the way I expected it to be, and little things would keep happening that gave me the confidence to keep going since now I knew I was on the right path.
Even a little after we came here, and just before, I couldn't help but have this feeling and the thoughts of "what if". What if things were different? What if we would have been in Thailand and everything was fine? What if...
But it's useless, and it's painful, unnecessary torture to think that way because you just never know what if. So I quickly banned that from my mind, and focused on how lucky we were to be here. And how amazing it was that it had all come together like this.
I did love this place from the beginning. For the kids it was a little bit different. The youngest and my eldest had it the easiest somehow. The two in the middle, they needed more time to adjust.
But now, especially now that they're making friends, and finding things to do that they like, they're doing amazingly well.
I guess sometimes a place just has to grow on you. This was definitely the case for them.
There's really not a place in the world that's like Mexico. Nothing compares.
No country I've been to anyway.
We've only been here for four months, and already I feel like I could write a book.
And we've only just begun!
It's almost surreal that there's a place where I only half understand what people are saying, and where I only just touched speaking the language, that this is also the place I call home. And I do. Not just in words but in my heart.
We haven't even started yet. We haven't seen anything yet. We still have so much to explore and experience.
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