Sweet sixteen

Sixteen years: Where has the time gone? Mind you, I might say that no matter where I’d ended up living, but my moving to the other side of the world 16 years ago kind of adds an exclamation point.

There were people who told me, “you’ll be back.” I can understand their scepticism: A year or two earlier and I might’ve said something similar to someone about to do what I did. Experiences change expectations and add understanding. Well, we hope they do.

Last year (all my previous years’ posts are linked below) I wrote: “I am what I am precisely because of where I am. This place has made me what I am now.” It’s one of the truest things I’ve ever written, and in so many ways. Any other place would have changed me, but would those changes have been as profound? I don’t know.

Part of that is, of course, Nigel: He is my rock, my centre, and—even sixteen years later—I’d move to the other side of the planet to be with him. Today is our sixteenth anniversary, too, because on this date our life together really began.

This morning Nigel and I were joking about how, at 5844 days, our union has lasted more than 81 times longer than Kim Kardashian’s legal marriage. We’ve also lasted more than 2,550 times longer than Britney Spears legal marriage.

So here I am, in the second half of my second decade in New Zealand, and I’m still completely happy. Like I said last year, “That’s what can happen when you follow your heart”.

So, Happy Expataversary to me, Happy Anniversary to us. Again.

Previous posts:
Fifteen
Fourteen
Lucky 13: Expataversary and more
Twelfth Anniversary
Eleven Years an Expat

Related:
Ex, but not ex-