The Path To Now

“Try to perceive the sequence of interests, important friends, coincidences that have occurred in your life. Weren’t they leading you somewhere?” 

The Celestine Prophecy. 

I often believe now, unknown to my younger self, that the path I was on decades ago was one leading me to a life abroad. There were signs, hints and indications in my youth that I was preparing for a life beyond my birth country, that my later life would involve speaking a second language.

The allure of the sights and smells of a foreign land
Photo: Sergi Montaner

My first trip abroad was a family holiday to Tangiers in Morocco. The sound of an unfamiliar language spoken all around me, the rich vivid colours of the North African wedding attire sparkling in the hot evening sun, the enchantment of a music so different to Western pop, the smells of exotic food cooking in the streets all served to pique my curiosity about life beyond the borders of my home land.

At the end of my first year in secondary school I went on my first school trip abroad to La Rochelle. It began my love affair with France. I homed in on French and German for my GCSEs and continued French to A-Level. My love of the French language went beyond the allure of my Liverpudlian French teacher. A school trip to Berlin a year after the wall fell enticed me to be a part of something bigger. Foreign languages were a part of who I was.

When I started looking for a university course I centred my search on a French degree. I eventually picked a European Studies course in Bradford, which led to me studying in Toulouse for a year. I use the term studying lightly. I loved the smell and bustling of the local bakery every morning, loved watching the old man in a beret that shuffled to the local supermarket in his slippers, loved browsing at the snails in the freezer compartment as I did my grocery shop - trying to pluck up the courage to actually try them.

After graduation jobs with companies like Michelin kept me speaking French but as I later settled on a career in Human Resources the need to speak a second language soon dissipated.

Fascinated by the French language at an early age
Photo: Amanda van Mulligen

Did I lean towards foreign languages from an early age because I would eventually need to live my life in a language not my own? Did the family holidays abroad as a teenager to countries like Turkey, Bulgaria, America, Greece and Cyprus ignite a spark for a life abroad, a yearning to see other cultures, how others live?

As a teenager I’d envisioned a life abroad, in France, where I spoke the language and loved the culture. Somewhere along the way I got distracted and forgot where I had been headed. My linguistic mind stayed with me, unused but patiently waiting in the background whilst I strayed from the path I should have been on.

And then one day my brother met an American girl, online, in a chat room. I was clueless. I had no computer of my own and had no idea how you could ‘meet’ someone in a chat room. After what seemed like no time at all he announced he was moving to Long Island and was getting married. One family globetrotter had fled the nest. But my own path kept me firmly rooted in England.

I was finishing my Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resources and needed to write a dissertation. The absence of a computer at home made it hard to make any real progress so I asked Santa Claus for a PC. And lo and behold Santa obliged (disguised as my father) and I became the proud owner of a personal computer. It became an indispensable companion.

One evening, for a reason I can’t remember or can’t imagine when I think back, my brother’s once uttered words, “go try a chat room. It’s fun” popped into my head. I did a search and ended in a chat room talking to a Mexican. I was getting bored when a pop up appeared from another chatter. This time it was a Dutchman. My boredom vanished.

Christmas was approaching, the millennium was closing in and my days were filled with MSN Messenger and emails. After our initial meeting I never entered a chat room again. Online chatting turned into a phone call on New Year’s Eve. Talking on the telephone turned in to visits to each other’s homes.

Seven months later my boss changed at work. She had a reputation of bringing in her own people wherever she went. My business trips planned months ahead were suddenly superfluous and I whispered to my dad that something was afoot. Something bad was looming. He told me I was being paranoid.

Then one evening, sure enough, I was summoned to the dragon’s den. She informed me that my position would end in two months. Walking home with tears streaming down my face I made a call to the Netherlands with my mobile phone. I shared the lowlights of my evening and told my Dutch partner that I needed to find a job fast so that my mortgage didn’t become a problem.

“Or instead of finding a new job there, you could move to the Netherlands…” he said and I could hear the smile on his face.

And suddenly I was back on the path I was destined to walk on.