Probably not the most well known place in England to people around the world. But I am from Yorkshire which in present time means…I sound like John Snow. I just had my first visit home in over two years and I wanted to write a blog on what I got up to and how it went. This might be over a few entries.
Living abroad is hard…I know I have said it before but there is a lot of blood, sweat and visa money behind those killer Instagram posts where we seem to always be having the best weekend. People back home are under the illusion we are living the high life at ease….it is a great life don’t get me wrong but it is a tough one at times. Everyone has had there rough patches trying to make it in a land outside of their own. When going to visit the homeland you always have a guard up and don’t really talk openly about what you are doing or your plans as you always have the fear that you are coming across bragging. I didn’t want to be like this when I met up with my friends and family.
I did meet up with a few people and I said nothing about my life. I just asked questions and people where happy to answer and not ask me anything. After a few of these conversations I thought I probably wont be making much of a effort with these people again. What is the point of a friendship if you cant talk openly and have mutual interest in each others lives?
Luckily those conversations where very few…I mainly had great conversations catching up with friends, babies and meeting new partners.
The biggest change to meeting up with people would have to be seeing my University friends. We have all known each other for over 7 years now. We grew up together; drank cheap beer, pulled all nighter’s with assignments, lent each other money, shared many a cheesy chips and supported each other into the adult working world. Through out the years the group has been in many different countries and stages at life. Instead of meeting at the pub and having a good night out this time we met at Butterfly World or as its known now Tropical World. It was the first time we had all been in the same country for years…
Yorkshire put on its best weather for our Uni reunion. Instead of a nice beer garden we were all in the Cafe at Tropical World in Leeds. There were two new additions to the group and one on the way….yes little humans started to join our gang. There were also partners we hadn’t met which was nice to finally put a face to all the stories we had heard about. It was a tense awkward few minuets then someone just took the lead and went round the table asking questions which broke the ice. We wondered around the Tropical House, the gardens through round hay park to grab a ice cream and of course it was always going to happen… we ended up in a beer garden. We did have a bit of time reflecting on our university days which just makes you feel insanely old and have no idea how time has gone by so fast. It was a massive highlight of my trip getting to spend a full day with the whole lot of them. I did manage to get to see a few again before I left.
The lesson I learnt after my visit home… to really focus on the important people around you. To not bow to pressure to meet up with people who are only interested in telling you about there life and not willing to share the conversation.
The rest of my time in Yorkshire was spent meeting up with people. I did do two things I want to write about. I did attend the Yorkshire Show for the first time ever and I also watched my mum walk down the aisle. Obviously the biggest part of the trip was the wedding and it was a very special day which I want to share in a blog. So working on two new blogs about the Yorkshire Show and my mums wedding day in the Yorkshire Dales. Also cracking on with the Ireland blog entry as well.
Let me know if you have the same struggles or experiences visiting home in the comments section.
Enjoy the Weekend!
Yorkshire Rambler 