One Year
- Abbie
- Oct 13, 2019
- 7 min read
12 months, 52 weeks and 365 days.
It only feels like yesterday that I was stepping off that plane into the U.S. This first year as an au pair has been utterly eye opening and completely life changing. This programme has allowed me to see parts of the U.S that I only dreamed of seeing, it allowed me to become the person I wanted to be, it brought people into my life that I cannot imagine not knowing, it allowed me to grow, change and reinvent myself. This programme gifted me with a second family and gave me somewhere else that I now and forever will get to call my home. It’s given me the opportunity that some people aren’t lucky enough to have and I am incredibly grateful that I was fortunate enough to be able to experience this. For me this programme is living proof that I truly can do anything and that if I just believe in myself then, the things I can achieve are endless.
“The strongest factor for success is self- esteem; Believing you can do it, believing you deserve it and believing you’ll get it”
Before doing this, I worked in a nursery and unfortunately, they were closing and I was so unsure on what I wanted to do next but I was certain on that knew I wanted to do something different. I thought about a lot of things and I had thought a lot about a gap year or travelling and then I saw an advert for Cultural Care on Facebook. It was something I really wanted to do but something I knew I truly had to think about. I think for a long time I tried to put myself off the idea of it because I was scared of doing it.
So many people thought it was such a great idea but there were also those who I felt didn’t believe I could do it, that it wasn’t legit or that I was going to scammed or something. With this there were a lot of factors to consider and there were a list of pros and cons to weigh up. In the end I stopped thinking about what everyone else thought and I started thinking about myself and what I wanted to accomplish.
After this was what I decided I was going to do, people still continued to have their doubts and disbeliefs; “she won’t last a year, she won’t even make it 6 months”.
I never in a million years thought that I would be the type of person that was able to achieve something like this. This was something that you only saw in movies, read about in books and the fact that I was going to be doing it was surreal, still is.
Bravery, another element that this programme allowed me find within myself. A year later and I can say that I did more than prove those people wrong and it truly does show that the only person that matters when believing in yourself, is you.
“You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore”
This year has truly been eye opening for me, the au pair experience gave me the opportunity to reinvent myself and allowed me some time to truly find out who I am and help me work towards who I want to be.
Independence, I thought I knew the meaning of the word, independent was something I was so sure that I was. Turns out I didn’t really know the meaning and I’m proud of how far I have come in terms of independence, you know moving half way across the world (alone) does require some of that.
Honestly this year has been the best year of my life, I made incredible friends, I was gifted with an amazing family, was lucky enough to visit some awesome places and I got given a second place I will always call my home.
A journey wouldn’t be a journey if you didn’t have people to share it with. This year I met an insane amount of special people that impacted my life, I found a second family, met a bunch of cool people and most importantly I met the bestest friend I could ever ask for.
On 13th December 2018 I was lucky enough to meet Cecilie, if you had told me then that I would find the bestest friend I'd ever have, I probably wouldn’t have believed you but, it’s true, I did.
In just a few short weeks we became inseparable and I swear people just referred to us as “Abbie and Cece” because we literally became joint at the hip and nine times out of ten we were together.
I don’t think I have ever laughed as much before with anyone as I have this past year with you. You’re my bestest friend, my family, my soul mate, my person and I’m so glad that we not only got to do this but got to experience this together, this journey wouldn’t have been half the fun and laughs if you hadn’t of been by my side.
Thank you for being goofy with me, thank you for cheering me up when I’m sad, thank you for always listening, for continuously being there when I need you (even when I don’t want to admit it), thank you for laughing with me, for crying with me, thank you for no matter what being a truly wonderful friend and thank you for giving me all these memories that will last a life time. I love you, forever xoxo
“She’s my person. If I murdered someone, she’s the person I’d call to help me drag the corpse across the living room floor. She’s my person.”
Now as many up’s as there have been there have been a fair few downs, as fun as this year has been it honestly hasn’t been easy. I’ve said it before and I will say it over and over again but being an au pair is not all sunshine’s and rainbows, it’s tough. Taking care of kid’s day in, day out is hard, it’s a hand’s on job but it’s one that I’ve really enjoyed doing this past year. I’ve really learned a lot about kids, their behaviour, how to deal with their behaviour and the reason they act the way they do. Over this past year because of this experience I’ve had the opportunity to extend my knowledge on children and it’s really allowed me to gain even more experience with children. Like I’ve written in my previous blog “The Kids” I talk all about the struggles that you have, that you come face to face with when working as an au pair or taking care of kid’s in general. This past year has helped me a lot in terms of understanding kid’s and allowed me to put in to action my experience with their behaviour. It’s given me a different outlook on the way children should be taught, raised and how they should be taken care of.
This past year I had the great pleasure of taking of three amazing, funny, crazy and kind children wo have the biggest hearts. Annie, Winnie and Wade completely won me over and truly have taken up a big space in my heart. It still ceases to amaze me the incredible, true bonds you build with your host kid’s. Honestly, I can’t imagine my life without them in it. A few tears, a handful of tantrums and thousands of laughs, they truly brightened up my life and I really believe that we will share a special bond for life.
Kids are not only the struggles you face when being an au pair, there are other things that also make the experience complicated. Being an au pair is not easy and that’s not only because taking care of kid’s is hard there are other factors that come in to place.
Moving somewhere new and being away from home is the toughest challenge of all when being an au pair, being away from your home, your family, your friends and your culture is exceptionally hard. Even though you might think you won’t miss it and just because you don’t miss it instantly doesn’t mean you won’t at some point during the duration of your time here in the US. It could be days, weeks, months before you experience homesickness but trust me all au pairs have that one point, that one moment during your time here that will just simply make you miss home. Doing what us au pairs do is tough stuff, moving away from home to a new country, basically alone to live practically with strangers is something that many wouldn’t dare to do.
Every au pair experiences different things in there year and go through different stuff, some lose their loved ones and others find the love of their life. I battled against homesickness, mended my broken heart after a breakup, missed my nieces being born and I went through second guessing myself and my decision. My point is that everyone comes face to face with problems throughout their year but it's how you deal with them, how you face them that will show the difference between you and others. Some people crumble but I can't fret enough how important it is that you overcome it, I soldered through and came out on top.
Being an au pair has taught me many things about life and about myself, how to be brave, independent, courageous, gave me a new sense of confidence, taught me to just be myself and not to be afraid to sometimes just take a step out of my comfort zone. Most importantly this experience taught me to believe in myself, that I can achieve anything and I will be forever grateful for this experience, for the fact that I got to live out this dream and for all that it gave me and for all that it taught me not only about life but what it taught me about myself.
"Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, just remember how far you have come. Remember everything you have faced, all the battles you have won and all the fears you have overcome"
Even though this is the end of my experience here in Charlottesville, it's not the end of my journey completely. I'm ready to expand and find even more out about myself on this next part of my incredible journey. Here's to the next nine months in San Francisco. I hope you continue to tag along and keep on checking out my blog and reading my posts about all my next exciting adventures.
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