London. The city that stole my heart, burnt me out, and had an impact on me that will last forever.

In August 2015, I packed my bags, waved goodbye to my hometown and left for the big smoke.

I’d never lived anywhere other than Northamptonshire. I even went to university there. And had my first (and only!) mortgage there too.

But at 31 years old, it was time to put my big girl pants on and head out into the world.

Find out why I was leaving the countryside for the city here.

Moving around

During my time in London, I moved around a lot, mostly across south-west London and dipping in and out of Surrey.

At various points, I lived in:

• Walton on Thames
• Wandsworth
• Battersea
• Kingston Upon Thames
• Carshalton

For very different reasons, Wandsworth, Battersea and Kingston will always hold special places in my heart. Wandsworth for the views, Battersea for the ‘real’ London experience, and Kingston for feeling like home.

Exploring the world

As well as moving a lot, I started to explore more of the world.

Over the last 10 years, I’ve been lucky enough to travel to:

• Morocco
• Crete
• Portugal
• Italy
• Tenerife
• Ibiza
• Spain
• India
• Mexico
• America
• Lanzarote
• Iceland

Someone asked me the other day where my favourite place to travel is. For me, that’s like asking me to pick a favourite kid (if I had any!). I just love travelling, meeting new people and experiencing different cultures and landscapes.

I also discovered I love travelling solo. It’s fun travelling with others, but I love the freedom of travelling by myself. It’s very freeing knowing that I have the confidence to jump on a plane and go somewhere whenever I feel the call to escape or explore.

Relationships

Friendships and relationships have been lost and found over the last 10 years. Anyone who’s moved to London from outside the city will know how difficult it can be to meet people. Londoners can be a funny bunch. But so is the lifestyle.

When I first moved to the city, I was working 14-hour days. I had no time or energy left for making friends. And when you’re working in a toxic environment, making friends at work can even be a challenge.

But strangely, I did have time to swipe on dating apps. I would even argue that they kept me sane in what was a very chaotic time in my life.

There were dates, situationships and eventually there were boyfriends too. It was while I was dating my first London ‘boyfriend’ that I started to dive into wellbeing and self-care. But more on that shortly.

Less than a year after I met my second London boyfriend, lockdown hit. Whilst lockdown seemed to strengthen our relationship, I felt desperately lonely. He was the only person I had in London. I had no friends to go on socially distanced walks with. Other friendships from ‘home’ started to fall apart, as no one seemed to notice that I might be feeling lonely. And let’s be real…everyone was just trying to get through lockdown with some degree of sanity themselves. But it did make me realise who cared and who didn’t.

During the pandemic, I decided to move to Kingston. And thankfully, this is when things started to shift. I finally had time to meet people, and met some lovely friends through wellbeing and hiking groups. I finally had people other than my then-boyfriend, who I could lean on for some support as we navigated the post-lockdown world together.

Wellbeing

As I said, it was while I was dating my first London boyfriend that I started to discover more about wellbeing and self-care. They weren’t terms I had come across before. Prior to this point, my self-care looked something like this: Get completely overwhelmed by life and then have a bubble bath. That was it. Oh, and occasionally I might treat myself to a face mask. Go me!

Clearly, I wasn’t winning at self-care and looking after my wellbeing. My job was causing me to burn out. Back then, I didn’t have the knowledge or self-awareness to recognise this either.

My boyfriend was working long hours and often worked weekends. And I was getting itchy feet. Not so much in my relationship – that came later. But, I was bored spending my weekends just existing. I wanted to go out and explore the city that was now my home. I wanted to discover ‘real’ London and not just the touristy bits.

My anxiety levels were pretty high by this point, so I really had to push myself to go out and explore. As much as my soul wanted to go on adventures, my anxiety was just trying to keep me safe.

But I pushed through. And it was liberating. I felt a sense of freedom for the first time in my life. It soon became a bit of a ritual. Every time my boyfriend had a weekend shift, I would plan a London adventure. I even created a London-inspired bucket list.

It was during this time that I started this very blog. I had always found it much easier to write about my feelings and emotions than to talk about them. It became a great way for me to process my thoughts.

I was beginning to realise I needed to make more time for myself. Whether that was exploring London, being more mindful, or just finding time to think.

Career Change

In January 2020, I returned from a life-changing trip to India. I was fed up with my job and decided this would be the year to look for something new.

But we all know what happened next. The small matter of a global pandemic.

In August 2020, 5 years after moving to London, my role was 1 of 4 at risk of redundancy.

I probably should’ve been more scared than I was. I had rent to pay for a start, and I was living in Battersea. My rent was high.

But I knew I couldn’t sustain the level of stress, overwhelm and burnout I had experienced over the previous 5 years. It became an easy decision for me to go, you know what, it’s time for me to leave.

Thankfully, they kept me on until December, which gave me plenty of time to figure out what to do next.

On January 1st, I officially became a sole trader. Initially, as a Freelance Writer. And then, as a Social Media Manager.

Saying goodbye to London

Last year, after almost 9 years living in London, I left the city behind. After moving to Carshalton in 2023, my landlady decided to sell the house. Business was going really well, but with rental prices increasing, it became less and less feasible to stay. London had officially priced me out, so it was time to widen the search.

Read more about my move here.

After much flat hunting, I moved to Lewes, in East Sussex, last summer.

Life has changed so much since I first made my move to London 10 years ago. I’m more confident in who I am, I found my voice, and I’ve done a whole lot of work on myself.

There may not be a husband, kids or a mortgage yet, but I’m beyond proud of how far I’ve come.

Let’s see what the next 10 years have in store!