We’re moving out!

After living in our beautiful 1-bedroom apartment facing the Devils’ Peak mountains of Cape Town, it’s time to go. I moved here about two years ago and Ambrose joined me a year later. And while we both love it here and share plenty of happy memories in between those walls, we decided to return the keys when we signed the offer of our vacant plot.

To make it real in our heads, we had to act like it. And we knew that to build our way home, it would take more than time and resources, it would also take some of our comfort away and push us in making some sorts of compromises. Because like any big life decisions, everything comes at a cost. Whether it’s time, money, space, long hours, double shifts, no-holidays, no-eating-out, no-drinking-out, there’s always something that can be adjusted.

And while we knew that we were making the right call by moving out, we still felt nervous and scared. One way to tackle those tummy aches and thoughts going hundred miles an hour was to share our fears to each other, and it turned out that we were feeling the same and that alone, reassured us. Between long conversations into the night and laughter (the nervous type and the liberating ones), we managed, together, to be more at ease.

By also reinforcing the fact that nothing is fixed, that we can change our mind and evolve our dreams, made us more at ease with our big adult decisions. If something doesn’t work out as we hoped, we can then always build something new.

Family also helps us a lot. While my family is still in France and very far from my day-to-day life here in South Africa, talking on the phone with my mother and crying my fears out to her was a turning point for me. She reminded me that I won’t evolve if I remain stuck in my habits and that sometimes it’s just about paying less attention to the thoughts and more to take that leap of faith. Ambrose’s family has also been extremely supportive. Soon after we shared our need to leave our expensive flat in the city and start saving toward our project, they agreed to share their roof with us until we can figure out our next step.

One unexpected thing to the next, here we are now, living at Ambrose’s father working home in Simon’s Town. We’ve swapped our little balcony for a backyard getting plenty of sun and endless views of the ocean. The only street actions we now get are cute little white bunnies running around in the front yard and the majestic peacock under the tree. We didn’t plan for all this beauty, somehow it just appeared.

And as we committed toward our vision and moved here, we realised that the fears once strong were now gone. They were actually replaced by excitement and a new sense of freedom.  

—

Écrit par Alice.