Jan 4, 20234 min read

Goodbye 2022 Hello 2023

WHAT A YEAR?!

I can't believe how far I've come in the last year, and to be honest, since I left my life in Paris 6 years ago... 2022 will have been a year full of twists and turns and learning.

I remember that a year ago, I started full of doubts and fears about my choices, about my life here in Canada, or in Nelson. I felt like I had lost complete control over my life. As if I no longer had any freedom. As if someone had taken over my pen and was writing the chapters for me...

I went from a settled life with a pretty decent job, to a more chaotic life full of adventure and freedom. If at first I felt like everything was blowing up in my face, in the end, it's a bit like jumping into a kid pool full of colourful balls. I jumped, I drowned, I bounced, I had fun, I created and I found the joy and simplicity of life that I needed. A life, which resembles me.

2022 was a year of acceptance, re-connection and mourning. I mourned many relationships, many lives, many versions of myself. I have come to accept my flaws and accept that life is the way it is, and that no one can change it, not even me. Leaving my job and taking four months off finally allowed me to reconnect with myself. To relearn to be patient and more gentle with myself. To listen again to my desires and needs. To relearn how to spend time alone. And then, this connection was also made with this country... These months of adventures have allowed me to learn to understand it better, to appreciate it better. Rather than feeling that I am here by default.

2022, also a year of professional changes. After resigning from my role as manager at the leather workshop, I made the decision to develop my art as a business, I decided to go back to school to become a life coach, and to get back into graphic design. And despite the exhaustion and the anxieties or fears this may have raised, I have absolutely no regrets. My coaching training is a revelation for me. It makes me so happy and fulfilled every day and I feel like I have finally found a passion that I can turn into a job and take with me everywhere... If you have been following me for years, you know how passionate I am about personal development... And you know how much I'm always on the move! To be able to travel, to work, to keep reading all the books on the subject, while being useful to others... I don't think there is a better combo.

And then, life for me has no meaning if I can't live my passions. What is the meaning of life if you have to spend it working and living a daily life that does not make you happy? So living your passions or living from your passions, maybe that's the real question.

2022 was also the year of love. But not the kind I dreamed of for so many years. No, no, I'm not talking about the love within the couple, but rather the love between you and me. That love and support that we pass on to each other. Sometimes by helping a stranger in the street. Often, in our families or in our friendships. My return to France last May warmed my heart like never before. I often tell myself that I am stupid to live so far away from my friends still there, so great are they. But I also say the same thing to myself about those left in New Zealand. And now, of those in Canada. I remember that during my year in Kiwiland, when people asked me what I did for a living, I would answer: "I'm here to love people. That's my full time job". And this year, I think that's the part of me that I really reconnected with. This generosity in me, this need I have to connect with others, to love so intensely. And in return, I have never felt so accepted, as I am. And that, really, is priceless.

Finally, I couldn't have finished this year in a better way, because a few days before Christmas I received... my permanent residency !!!! It's the best gift when you're an expat... Permanent residency is a 5 year work permit, renewable, which gives me the right to stay and work in Canada, without any employer conditions. A relief that I can't describe to you. It gave me a boost and made me want to... travel! Yes, now that I'm at ease and that I have Europe and Canada as my home, I can go and explore everywhere else :)

"if you could change one thing about 2022, what would you change and why?"

Looking back, even if I were given the opportunity to change anything from this past year, I wouldn't change anything. My heartaches, my tears, my joys, my encounters, my adventures and my anxieties have brought me exactly where I needed to be, and exactly where I am today.

At the beginning of this year 2023, I take up the pen again. I am writing the chapters of my life again, own my own. And even if I am aware that the heroine of my story will encounter other difficulties, other adventures and that she will still jump on a rollercoaster, I trust her. I know that she will get to where she needs to be. That she will give herself the experiences she deserves. And that she will live her dreams to the fullest, for another year.