In this piece I am writing to explain the start of what has now been ten years of traveling and working. Always staying out of the comfort zone and generally not conforming!! So ten years ago I grew out of the town I was brought up in. It felt stifling, restrictive and with little opportunity.
A friend and I bought a house together and went to work as we where told to by society. Now I have no problem with working hard. But when your life is just work that’s unbalanced.
Then Two years later my friend announced that he had indeed had enough of the town and wanted to leave. At the time I was shocked and was worried about having the house to myself and paying for it all when I could not afford while he went off to university To further his education.
At this point I was working as a commis chef in a local hotel, which i must admit I loved and gained a huge amount of experience. Still to this day I am very greatful to all help me develop as a chef and a person. I was lucky to work with some amazing people.
So back to the house so instead of worrying I came around to the idea that this was in fact my ticket out!!! Though scary at first I started thinking about where to go what to do!! One of the greatest things about being a chef it’s a very transferable skill which is needed and can be done anywhere. I had got introduced to the idea of a ski season by a friend. Which on paper sounded like a great idea!! Problem was I had never skied or snowboarded, but had been skateboarding for years so I thought this would transfer over into snowboarding easy enough. So I searched and searched on the internet. This is back in 2007 when websites where terrible and I think we had just installed WiFi!! Facebook had just started, instagram and Snapchat had probably not even been thought of at that point. So I found a company I liked the sound of and applied. This was in fact my only application so I was running a big risk. Still my application was accepted and I was asked to go and make an interview. I was so happy to just get to that point. Also scared too. Realistically this was also my first formal interview. To which I had never practiced because I was always in work and found work through friends. So this was a challenge too.
So u got to this interview and meet this wonderful lady who was extremely posh but friendly and personable. We got on very well and the interview in fact felt like I was talking to a friend or a very interested Auntie or grandmother lol!!
So with the interview over i went home and waited and then two weeks later I had the news that I had got the job. It was August at this point and I had three months to sort out myself my house and pack ready to leave for France to the little town know as Val d’Isère.
My friend and I packed up the house he went off to Leeds and I still had time before leaving myself so I moved in with another friend. We put the house up for rent which was difficult within its self. Bearing in mind at this point we where only 21 at the time. And then the time came that I had to say goodbye to old friends and family. And to start my journey which I did not know what would happen.
It was nerve racking but also very exciting!!! I traveled done to London with all of my belongings ready to get a 16 hour coach down to the French Italian boarder the haute de savoie. I got to London Victoria bus station where I meet a bunch of other people who were doing the same thing as myself we all looked nervous but at least we where all in the same boat.
Ok so for now I will leave the story here to pick up again next week. This will be the first of three parts of this story. Providing that the community likes the story and would like to read more. For all that do thank you for taking the time to read I hope you enjoyed it so far and that it adds and different perspective of living.