Why Don’t You Go to Darwin? – Part 1: The Question That Changed Everything

It was Boxing Day 2022.

I was at my brother’s house for a family lunch, standing in the kitchen chatting with my sister-in-law’s family. It was the first time I’d met K, she’s married to my sister-in-law’s brother.

She smiled and said,

“I’ve heard so much about you.”

I laughed.

“Only good things, I hope?”

She grinned. “Yeah, yeah.”

Then she brought it up.

She said she’d heard I’d left my career and was exploring something different.

“Yeah, that’s right,” I told her.

And then completely out of nowhere she said:

“Why don’t you go to Darwin?”

I looked at her.

“What do you mean?”

She said,

“You’d absolutely love it up there. There’s so many opportunities for someone like you. They’ll pay for your flights, all your housing maybe even your bills if you land the right job.”

I was stunned.

But there was something in it. I could feel it.

She asked,

“Do you have a partner?”

I said no.

“Perfect,” she said. “I’ll send you a few websites. You should check it out.”

I had never seriously considered leaving Melbourne.

My family and friends were here, Zep too. This was home.

Sure, I’d dreamed of maybe living in Greece or somewhere in Europe one day, I’m eligible for Greek citizenship by descent. But Darwin?

This was unexpected.

And yet, something inside me shifted.

Quietly, I opened the Seek app and started looking at jobs in Darwin.

I didn’t know it then but that conversation would become the start of one of the biggest shifts of my life.

I was ready to expand again.