Davinia Hamilton left Malta a sunny Mediterranean paradise for the overcast gray skies of Dublin. She explains why...
A couple of nights ago, I was sitting outside at a bar in Valletta, listening to live jazz and having a great conversation with two Brits who had recently relocated to Malta. I told them how I would be moving to London next week, and how it's something I've always wanted to do. They looked at me like I had absolutely lost my marbles.
I frowned and asked what was wrong.
“Are you mad?” one of them said; “Why in the world would you ever want to leave this island? It's basically paradise.”
I get that a lot. You see, I was born in Malta, a tiny island right in the middle of the Mediterranean, where the sun shines almost all year round, the sea is the bluest blue, and life revolves around our dining tables, which are usually filled with fresh bread, olive oil, fruit and wine.
And so when I tell foreigners that I left Malta last year for Dublin, they usually respond by implying that I have lost my marbles.
Except that I haven't. Not at all. The grass is always greener on the other side. Except it really is greener in Dublin because it rains quite a bit there.
I've always wanted to leave Malta. As beautiful as it is, it is just not for me. The summer heat makes me feel frustrated and angry; the fact that Malta is so small does exactly the same thing. And although I have very good friends here, and although my family is here, I've always known I would leave the country eventually.
Different places are right for different people. While some people's idea of heaven is basking in the sun with a cold mojito, my own heaven consists of plenty of buildings, plenty of people and places where there is always something going on.
I am a city girl through and through. More than three days in the countryside and I start to get twitchy and agoraphobic. And so, last year, when the opportunity arose for me to move to Dublin to do my Masters degree, I knew I had to take it.
As melodramatic as this sounds, as soon as I had settled in Dublin, it felt like my life had finally begun – possibly because I had been so convinced I would leave Malta, that staying there only felt like I was procrastinating.
And I am not saying that it is easy to move to a different country – not by any means. Besides the torture of packing your entire life into a few boxes, the worst part about leaving is leaving people behind. I wish I could've scooped my family and friends up in my arms and taken them with me. And even though I am used to living away from my family now, saying goodbye to them at the airport only gets harder and harder. True, phones and Skype and Facetime all make it a lot easier to keep in touch with the people you care about, but it is still not easy.
Nonetheless, the year I spent in Dublin was the best year of my life so far. They say travel is the best education, and I can't deny there is a lot of truth to that statement. Being so far away from home teaches you a lot about yourself, good and bad. And there is something inherently exciting in getting to know a new place, in observing how it progresses from 'surrogate country' to 'home' as you forge new friendships, find your away around, and learn more and more about the history of the place, the locals and the traditions.
It has been nice to come back to Malta for a couple of weeks. It is interesting to be back here now, because Malta is no longer 'home'. I am no longer up to date with all the news and inside jokes and it feels like I am a foreigner here, which also means I get to treat this like a holiday. Also great is all the attention I've been getting from my friends, who want to meet me for drinks and a catch-up session before I leave the island again.
But here I am, leaving paradise again; this time for London, the city-est city in the world (with, perhaps, the exception of New York). Sometimes I think being the new girl in a new place again is going to be daunting, but that is the downside to having a bad case of the travel bug. Because, yes, being settled down in one country, whether it is your version of paradise or not, is comfortable and offers a sense of security.
We travellers, however, crave the novelty of a new place, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. We don't only want to be citizens of one city; we want to be citizens of the world, and that is why I am leaving paradise. Again.
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