About once a week, someone slides into my DMs to ask why I left America. I’m pretty sure anyone who knows me well enough would’ve sworn I’d never leave California. I lived in a studio one block from the beach, had a great community, and surfed almost daily. I had also built a name for myself within the yoga industry and had just launched a career in real estate. From the outside looking in, I was living my best life.
In Southern California, image is important—especially if you are a real estate agent. People judge you based on the purse you’re holding, the clothes you’re wearing, and the car you’re driving. Not everyone, of course, but most will, especially if they don’t know you prior to working with you.
Since launching my career in real estate, I knew that investing in a new car would be crucial to my success. I kept postponing it and finally told myself that after my trip to Fiji, I’d make the investment. Little did I know that trip to Fiji would change my perspective on the life I was living.
I actually applied for a visa to come to Australia back in 2016 but never followed through. A good portion of my early twenties was dedicated to exploring America. I turned 25 a month before the pandemic. Any plans of travel got postponed, and my trip to Fiji was my first international trip since 2018. Upon returning to America, I felt as if I had been robbed of pivotal years of my youth. Suddenly, the life I was living felt very unaligned with the life I wanted to be living.
Truthfully, I don’t think real estate was ever for me. Despite having beginner's luck, I never felt motivated or passionate about it. There is so much ego in the real estate industry. I had clients I was working with for months. I showed them numerous homes and would always park a block away so they wouldn’t be able to judge me based on the car I was driving. One afternoon, it was unavoidable as I was showing them multiple homes back-to-back, and I knew for a fact that they saw my vehicle. They ghosted me, and despite following up numerous times, I never heard from them again. Maybe there was another reason they decided to stop working with me, but in my mind, this was the only conclusion I could come to, and the reality is I’ll never know.
Unfortunately, vanity is part of the world we live in. I’d like to point out that not all clients were like this, but I couldn’t afford to work for free for months on end only to lose my client to another agent who drives a Tesla. When I got back from Fiji, the rational side of me couldn’t justify spending thousands of dollars on a new car when there was nothing wrong with my current one. Especially considering the fact that I simply didn’t feel passionate about selling houses. The spiritual side of me realized that this work wasn’t fulfilling me like the much lower-paying yoga industry had.
I was driving to my real estate office for training shortly after my trip to Fiji when I quite literally had a mental breakdown. I had to pull over on the side of the 5 (I-5 for those who don’t speak SoCal) as cars flew past me. The thought of looking back one day in my eighties and feeling regret for not traveling more when I’m young and healthy scared me. The thought of working in an industry I wasn’t truly passionate about or felt aligned with was an even tougher pill to swallow. The reality was I could always come back to real estate if I had a change in heart. However, getting a visa to go live and work in Australia becomes a lot harder once you turn 30. I was running out of time.
America is so work-driven. It’s a constant grind. It's all I knew as I was born and raised there. Going to Fiji was a reminder that life doesn’t have to be about your career. In fact, what you do for a living is perhaps the least important thing about you. I had this gut-wrenching feeling that if I were to stay in California and continue to work in real estate, I’d miss out on the remainder of my youth. The pandemic had already taken so many crucial years from me, and I refused to let myself fall into the trap of becoming a slave to the system.
So why did I leave? I guess you could say it was a combination of wanderlust and not wanting to live a life that didn’t align with my truth. I’m almost five months into my life in Australia, and I can wholeheartedly say I have no regrets. I feel extremely passionate about the launch of Adventures with Aimee and already have so many ideas for what’s to come. Whether it be yoga retreats, hosting teacher trainings, or offering consulting services to other wellness professionals, I truly believe this is just the beginning. My focus has been to simplify my life as much as possible, and build a network of people in that process
The cost of living in Australia is nearly half of what it is in San Diego, and for the first time in my life, I feel like I can actually stay afloat to work on this project of mine. Plus, I’m loving the endless adventure that my life has become. I’ve learned more about myself in the last five months than in the last five years combined, and I wouldn’t change a thing. I am a big believer that travel (especially international travel) teaches you more than you will ever learn in college. That being said, there are certainly challenges that come from living so far from home. Here are the top 5:
There have been a handful of times I get hit with a wave of loneliness. It’s a feeling I can’t quite put into words and only those who have also moved 7,500 miles from home will understand. Despite having met so many amazing people since moving here, I do really miss my family and friends back home.
In lieu of my first challenge, I am now faced with a challenge I’ve never experienced until moving to Australia. The reality is, I don’t want to be this far from my family and friends forever, but I also don’t want to live in America. After having a taste of what it's like to live in a fully functional society where the citizens don’t hate the government, the thought of going back to America gives me a significant amount of mental distress. If Australia were a three hour flight from America, I’d stay forever.
My third challenge isn’t necessarily related to my location as much as my age. There’s a comparison that subconsciously happens when I see someone I went to school with buying a house or intentionally having a baby (you know you’re getting old when your friends plan to get pregnant). Although I know we are all on our own trajectories and different paths, I sometimes wonder what my life would look like if I had taken a more traditional approach to adulthood. I’ll admit that there are even times I’m envious of the people that stayed in my hometown and seem so content with the lives they’re living (like how???). Or maybe they’re not and that’s just my perception. Regardless, I know that one day I’ll look back and be grateful that I made the choices I did, and that’s what matters.
This is an obvious one. Being a day ahead of America comes with its challenges. Right now, I’m trying to schedule a meeting with people on EST and PDT. When it’s 7 AM Tuesday for me, it's 5 PM Monday EST and 2 PM Monday PDT. Someone is always inconvenienced, and there’s really no way around it. I’m grateful again for technology because so much of the work I do doesn’t have to happen in real time and can be answered when it's received.
I saved this one for last because it's a challenge that I haven’t faced often, but I’ve faced it enough to make note of it. It’s the sad fact that xenophobia is very real, and I’ve been in situations where someone’s entire demeanor changes when they hear my American accent. Americans are called "seppos" here (the word is slang for ‘septic tank’ because Americans are full of shit). I would say 99.9% of Australians are beyond welcoming, but there is that 0.1% that will make it clear they don’t want you here. As a straight Caucasian female, it's the first time in my life that I’ve experienced any real prejudice, which has truthfully given me an entirely new perspective on issues such as racism and homophobia. I believe that with time, the xenophobic, homophobic, and racist generations will die off, and we’ll all be accepting of one another (or at least I pray this is the case).
I feel so incredibly blessed to be in a position physically, mentally, and financially to relocate to Australia. I’ve been preaching “health is wealth” for the last decade now, and I’ll stand by it until the day I die. If we aren’t taking care of ourselves physically and our health declines, are we truly living? More so, if we’re living a life that doesn’t align and is mentally draining, what is the point?
I believe that there is so much more to life than what is shoved down our throats in America. While I know plenty of people that love the life they live in America, it is so clear to me now that a large portion of us have been brainwashed into believing that success and happiness come from money. Even the way the school system is here in Australia has made it really eye-opening as to just how intensely we institutionalize children in America. I’ve met people from all over the world in Australia, but it’s pretty rare that I meet another American. I think this is largely due to the fact that our youth is not encouraged to travel in America. There is no such thing as a “gap year” and going to college immediately after high school is the norm.
Will I stay here forever? I have no idea what tomorrow holds let alone what forever holds. All I know is I’ve really been enjoying this chapter of my life and I love this part of the world. My visa won’t last forever and I’m trying to embrace the uncertainty rather than dwell on it. Life is too short to worry about the future and not cherish the present. I’d love to hear your thoughts below.
