“Fate was willing you to do better”

When Becca* lost her job, she decided to pack her bags and move to New Zealand – and now she has an amazing life and career Down Under. Here she writes a letter to her 27-year-old self:

Hello you,

Today is a pretty shitty day. Redundancy was definitely NOT in the game plan. And after years of studying, interning, and getting crap pay – things finally started to take shape for you. You were writing for a living, despite everyone who said that wasn’t possible.

But then came those dreaded words - ‘business restructure,’ ‘cost-saving analysis,’ ‘staff streamlining.’

Gross.

Gone are your dreams of soaring to editor, suddenly you’re just another unemployed journalist on the scrapheap. But take it from me – things will get better.

Up until this point, work has been your life. You’ve slaved away for peanuts, put in overtime for free, lived in cramped apartments with questionable housemates, and you did it all to get that ‘dream job.’

In the coming weeks you’ll feel like that’s all been for nothing. But please don’t wallow – it’s time to make a plan.

You know how you’ve always dreamt of living by the beach? Clocking off at 5 and spending your evenings swimming in the ocean with the hot sun beating on your skin? It’s time to make it a reality.

How does New Zealand sound?

In a year’s time I can promise you the following:

You’ll live in a sunny apartment by the beach
This will cost half what your Zone 3 hovel did
You’ll get a better position with higher pay
You’ll have more disposable income (hello, new wardrobe)
And at the weekend - you’ll get to enjoy some of the most breath-taking scenery imaginable

You should actually count yourself lucky. Comfort breeds complacency. And we’re all guilty of getting comfortable.

Sure moving back in with your parents for a bit isn’t ideal, but it will galvanize you to do better, I promise.

Moving countries won’t be easy. It will be terrifying. Even without a language barrier, cultural differences prevail. And turning up 11,000 miles from home without a job or any connections will probably remain one of the more rash things you do.

But the sense of achievement you’ll have when you persuade that employer to take you on, a few weeks after arriving in the country, the excitement you’ll feel stomping the streets of a new city that’s totally yours, and the unbridled joy you’ll have at signing the lease on a little beach house for two – will make all the anxiety pale in comparison.

Although you might not believe it now, in a year’s time you will actually be grateful for that shitty Monday morning when you were told you no longer had a job.

It’ll feel like fate was willing you to do better.

“Wipe the tears away: a letter to myself on the day I was made redundant”