Aslaug's Axe Shed

It’s been over a year since I moved to Ireland. I left Denmark on the 4th of March 2011, and when I left, I said to everyone “I am not leaving for half a year or a year … I’m emmigrating.”

I was, and I am, serious about that. I do not see myself going back to Denmark to live. Not in the immediate future, not for a long time … probably not ever. Having moved away has been a uniformly good thing for me. I have learned to see things from a very different perspective, when looking at my country of origin, and it has made me wonder if everyone wouldn’t benefit from this sort of thing. If not permanently, then at least for a while. I mean, let’s face it … the first year has seen ups and downs. It has seen triumph and tragedy, and not necessarily for me personally, but in general. These are the days when the mass murderer from last summer’s massacre in Norway is on trial, for example.

Life is not all good and it is not all bad. There are things I wish were different, certainly, but there are a lot of things that I am happy with as well. My job is not what I went to university for five years to do, but I have the most brilliant group of colleagues so … both ups and downs. I am far away from my family and my friends back in Denmark, but it has taught me a new kind of self reliance. Again, both good and bad.

What does this mean on a personal level? I don’t rightly know. I know that as most of you have no doubt noticed, I don’t write a lot of furry stuff anymore. I’ve moved on to other things. It means I have more of a social life than I’ve ever had before. It is a lot to take in, really.

There are a lot of things I want to do that I never thought of before. I’m more comfortable with myself than I have ever been … I can take the piss on myself in ways I wouldn’t have thought possible in the past, and I laugh along with everyone else when someone gets the better of me. It’s not so long ago where something like that would have sent me into a spiral of self-doubt and agonizing.

Life is just … too short for that kind of thing, you know?

I guess I don’t have a whole lot to say right now. I follow the news and the world in general and I’m pretty sure I’ll have one of my patented rants to share with you all on stuff like the American presidential election soon enough. Or the state of the EU. Or something else. But outside, the sun is shining, and the grass is green in Ireland.

I think I’ll get myself a guiness when I get off work and enjoy kicking up my feet when I get home today.

Life is never too short for that, after all.