I think my recent anxiety over jobs, careers, and the decisions that they involve was caused by my upcoming move abroad. Last time I lived abroad I was in college and had a job working for the college. This time? It’s a whole new ballgame.

For starters, my visa allows temporary (up to 3 months) of part time work. If I want to get anything else I have to apply to get a different work permit. That alone leaves me scared that I’ll never find work. Add to that the fact that research online and from friends who lived in New Zealand tells me I’m at a disadvantage because I’m American. Yep, apparently kiwis don’t like to hire Americans. It makes sense in a small country with limited jobs and resources. It makes sense but it scares me. What if I’m always unemployable once I make the move? To be honest the whole process scares me and leaves me feeling almost paralyzed.

Although the move is in August, the chain of events leading up the move is going to start next weekend when I head south to Cali for a week or so. Because of that the move feels a lot closer than it actually is. I’m very excited to move to New Zealand. I’m looking forward to it. But certain things, like the job situation, give me pause and get me worrying. I know worry is pointless, but it’s a hard thing to stop once you’ve started.

So I worry a little bit and write posts about my career crisis and my confusion over the future.  Thank goodness for great comments that remind me that everything will come together. They remind me that I’m lucky enough to have created a somewhat stable online business to help me out even if I don’t have another job. They remind me to snap out of my worrying about careers and realize I’m one of those people who likes to be doing 18 different things at once. One job forever? Ha. I’ve already dipped my toes into a dozen different things and that number will just keep rising. I’ll probably end up have 4 different careers and a zillion different jobs. And that’s okay.

Now that I’ve moved past the mini vocation related crisis, I’m once again super excited about all the things coming up. I just spent a few minutes looking back through my vacation photos from New Zealand and I’m really missing it.  I’m so excited to move there for a year! :)

As far as birthday presents go, this year I bought myself the best one ever: a plane ticket to New Zealand.

I wish that this ticket was for this week and I was heading off for a quick visit, but unfortunately it’s not. It is however the plane ticket for my big move to New Zealand. And I bought it on my birthday! It wasn’t planned that way, that just happened to be the day that the particular savings account hit the amount to purchase the ticket. The date was just a cool side benefit. But a plane ticket for a move across the world is a pretty nice gift for yourself I think.

So I’m officially going! Now that I’ve bought the plane ticket it’s a real event that is going to happen in just a few months.

On August 13 I’m moving to New Zealand.

That’s the date that I settled on, which happens to also be Friday the 13th. I found that funny so I went a step further and reserved seats on row 13. You know, just because. I’ve never been the superstitious type and once even used the number 13 for softball. If anything it’s more of a lucky number than an unlucky one. Hopefully my flight/row will be empty. ;)

I could have waited to get the ticket but I like to do things in advance so I know there won’t be any problems later on. I didn’t want to wait and let prices jump or possibly use the money on something else so that I then couldn’t purchase a ticket. No, I like to be prepared way in advance for something like this. Because something like this is pretty huge.

So that’s why this particular plane ticket is THE plane ticket. It’s the one that is taking me to a new country for a year. It’s the one taking me to some new adventures. It’s the one taking me back to my love. It’s a pretty special plane ticket. Plus it’s only one stop this time.  Awesome.

Somehow I neglected to blog about the most exciting thing to happen lately.

I supposed the fact that I went to a blogging conference or the fact that I ended up in the emergency room with kidney stones distracted me from what happened. Those are pretty big things themselves, so it is easy to see how I could forget about something as small as an email. When you are on pain medication and stuck in airports because of weather you forget anything besides trying to get through the present moment.

But the email was important. It roughly planned out my future for the next year and a half.

The email told me my working holiday visa for New Zealand was approved!

There was less than a .0001% chance that it would not have been approved, but it was very exciting to receive the email with the words, “We are pleased to advise that your application under the Working Holiday Scheme has been approved.”  Hurray!

This means that I am going to move to New Zealand for sure. It’s real. Before when I posted about moving to New Zealand it was just an idea. Now it’s becoming a reality. My next step is to buy the plane ticket. And then there are the million other tiny steps in between like selling my car and scooter and the majority of my stuff (because who wants to bring a ton of crap along?). But luckily I have several months to do all of this since I’m not going to New Zealand until the second week of September.

I will most definitely blog more about this process and the move and New Zealand. I’ve been distracted lately with my health blog and the projects related to it, but I still want to create something recording the process separate from the healthy living frame of reference.

I know moving to New Zealand won’t be perfect, and I’m trying to keep my expectations realistic, but sometimes I can’t help but get excited. Like really, silly excited. It’s such a huge thing to do, to move across the world. It’s something I have always wanted to do and this is the year that I do it. Woah!

I’ve made a decision.  As it is, it’s kind of a big one.

I’m moving to New Zealand this year.

I loved New Zealand and the person I love lives there.  Additionally, I’ve always wanted to live there.  Don’t ask me why, but it’s just always been one of the countries on my list of places I wanted to live (also including England, any European country, and Mexico).  And I want to move there by the end of the year, sooner if possible.

I’ve already chosen the path I want to take and now I’m just trying to figure out how to make it happen. Before going I want to finish paying off my credit cards and bank the money needed to go there on a working holiday visa.  Plus I need a plane ticket, insurance, and other miscellaneous expenses.  So now I’m at a place where I’m trying to figure out how to make it happen.

The past few months my online income has been rising dramatically each month.  It’s been encouraging to see more success, but it is still not a full time income.  It is more like pay equivalent to a part time gig.  With living at home it is currently paying all my expenses.   But it’s not getting me to New Zealand anytime fast at this rate.

I suppose one problem is that it’s not a full time job.  I don’t work on it full time.  I could but as of yet I’ve either had other jobs or been traveling.  So now that I’m in one place and settled I have a decision to make: do I go full speed ahead trying to create an income online or do I start searching for a job?

The correct answer is probably both.  But job searches can last months.  In months I’m hoping to be getting ready to move to New Zealand.  So perhaps instead I should look for short term freelance projects once again (anyone need a writer/blogger?) and even contemplate a waitressing job.  Plus, searching for a full time job when I don’t intend on staying longer than a year seems unfair to whoever hires me.

Or maybe I should continue with the online biz action. I’ve got an info product I’m working on that will be released next month and maybe I should focus hardcore on that launch before making a decision.  I know long term that this is what I want to be doing, I’m just not sure if now is the right time to make that jump.

If you want to share your thoughts, feel free.  But keep them positive, since this is a positive thing.

I’m excited to be moving abroad again!  And this time I will understand everyone for the most part!  It’s going to be awesome!

Love is in the air. Or at least it was with all the Valentine’s Day commotion and commercialism yesterday.

Apparently Memphis ranks low for those wanting to find love, or so The Memphis Blog has informed me.

I suppose that’s why I had to fall in love with someone who lived outside of Memphis. Maybe I could have picked someone closer to home, but falling in love with a boy who lives in New Zealand does have its perks.  New Zealand is pretty awesome.

It’s a very strange thing, falling for someone before you’ve technically met them.  But that’s what happened to me in a little weight loss blogging love story that took me across the globe to meet the person I fell for.   In the end it worked out like I imagined and I couldn’t be happier.

Yesterday we went ZooMusic at the Auckland Zoo, knocking out two of the things I wanted to do while in New Zealand: go to a zoo and attend a concert of Kiwi music.

I forgot to eat a kiwi while looking at the kiwi birds, which for some strange reason is a goal of mine.  Oh well, I’m just saving something for next time.  We did wander around looking at the animals before the concert and saw many of the normal characters, like birds, rhinos, and hippos.

At 5:30 they closed the zoo and we lined up outside to get back in at 6 for the concert.

Lisa Crawley opened up the show

and the main acts were Anika Moa

and Sola Rosa with some singers whose names I don’t know.

Sola Rosa was the only one I had any previous knowledge of before ZooMusic.  I love this song from them and Iva Lamkum.

The concert turned out to be pretty cool. We grabbed some grass front and center to sit and enjoy the show then danced during Sola Rosa’s performance. Luckily the rain held off until we were leaving! I never thought it would rain, or threaten to rain so much here.

Despite being a lot of fun, the concert was a Concert for Conservation. Part of ticket price and all the additional money raised that night will go toward conservation of the Sumatran tiger. From the Zoo:

“Worldwide, there are fewer than 160 Sumatran tigers in zoos and less than 400 in the wild. Along with captive breeding, zoos are increasingly working together to support conservation projects in the wild. Through our Conservation Fund, the zoo has joined with Australasian and European zoo partners to assist the 21st Century Tiger project’s Kerinci Seblat National Park. A World Heritage Site, Kerinci Seblat’s 14,000km is one of the most important conservation areas in South East Asia, and has tiger protection and conservation units working hard to halt the poaching and trafficking of tigers. Funds raised from Anika Moa and Sola Rosa’s ZooMusic concert will support tiger protection and conservation units in this national park.”

Listening to music and saving the tigers…. good times. ;)

I’m enjoying posting pictures lately, more than blogging, since I’ve got so much other writing to do with my other blog and the ebook I’m working on. Here is one of my favorite places, right in the middle of Auckland.  I love the trees and how they grow out searching for the light wherever they can find it.

Haven’t seen a sunset in New Zealand yet that hasn’t been beautiful.

We took a ferry ride over to Waiheke Island the other day, after spending a few minutes on the wharf trying to decide on the best destination. The ride itself was quite nice; it takes about 40 minutes to get to the island and there is plenty to look at leaving Auckland.

Once we got to the island we had to decide what to do. Our choices were between sea kayaking, riding a scooter, or riding bikes around the island. We chose the bikes because it would be a fun way to see the island and provide a little bit of exercise.

It was a lot of exercise as the island is hilly, so we were going up a pretty steep hill ever five minutes or so.  We biked over to this beach and took a little water break underneath a tree.

In the end we cut across the traditional loop they had for bike riders.  We shortened the route due to sunburn and fatigue on my part, and missing the first turn we needed to keep going the marked route.  Instead of back tracking to get back to the normal loop we just picks a street and cut across… missing another turn, but in the end reconnecting with the correct streets.  Might not have gone the right way but we still had a fun time on the roads we did decide to take.

Since we cut it short it turned out to be a fun time. I did end up with a decent sunburn and super tired muscles, but all in all the next day I feel fine. I’m glad we did it! And next time? Next time we will do more and I won’t be so tired/unprepared.