The Transient London Lifestyle

I love living in London, don’t get me wrong, but I can certainly come up with a list of negatives if pushed to it. At the top of this list is definitely its transient nature. Expats – and even some locals – are drifting through the city for indeterminable lapses of time, posted overseas by their firms, taking Masters’ programs, settling down with British partners, or taking advantage of the amazing travel opportunities that this continent provides. And then, as quickly as they came into this London life, they are gone again.

My reason to be in London doesn’t really fit into any of these categories. I’m just here, living life as it comes. But because of that, I also don’t quite know how transient my time here will be. The timing for this blog relates to the fact that today I am losing one of my best London friends, as well as being a couple of months away from losing another.

Natalie, a London gal born and bred, and one of my best friends since the first day I met her at the end of 2009, is flying to Bangkok tonight, on the first leg of a multi-continent seven months of traveling. Now, I can accept the fact that most Canadians who move to London only last a year or two, but I didn’t expect to lose one of my British ladies. I can’t really blame her though. Nat is essentially taking the same step I did when I dropped my entire life in Toronto a year and a half ago. She’s got that itchiness to explore, the one we all get around age 30. Unfortunately for me, her sense of adventure is taking her away from me.

I do wish her the best and truly believe in the importance of taking this kind of step, as can be seen in the quote I wrote into her birthday/leaving do card: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

My roommate Lauren’s London life is also coming to an end soon. She has been here for over two years and will be back in Toronto in April with her man Scott and a new Ernst & Young job. Since she is Canadian and always intended to return at some point, this one was not unexpected. Still, it is rough to have such important parts of your daily life begin to disappear across the ocean.

I should be more emotionally prepared for these big changes. I mean, my first year in London and the people who were part of my life has already changed dramatically a few times. Canadian friends like Marge, Lisa, Carly, Sandra and Di have all returned to their various cities back home. I always convince myself to stop befriending Canadians but it is really hard to do, they just keep popping back into my life. Canadians in London gravitate towards each other like magnets.

But the thing about London, perhaps another negative, is that it is nearly impossible to get your life in order. At least in my industry – journalism – it is very difficult to earn enough quid to be able to both enjoy London life and save for the future. Some friends who have gone back to Canada mainly did so because they were ready to buy a house, start a family, or smoothly transition their careers. I don’t know what that means for me, and for my future, but I think about it every day.

And I truly don’t know how long my London life will be. I have been here for nearly 17 months and have another seven on my visa. A tarot card reader at a PR party this week told me that I will live in the UK for five or six more years, but I find that hard to believe when my visa expires in September. The reader didn’t provide any specific details to help me avoid that inevitable expulsion from London. And, today, I don’t even know if I want to avoid it. But I am keeping my options open and still enjoying every second that I spend here, especially every second I can with my Canadian and British friends because I never know when they are going to pack up and leave me.