Canberra has been my home for the past 28 years. I love it here. I’ve got my family, partner and friends all over Canberra. I grew up in the deep south of Canberra in Gordon and last year I took the plunge (jokes) and moved to the complete opposite, to the deep north of Canberra in Casey. Canberra is a pretty easy place to live mostly. Nothing takes you longer than 35 minutes to get anywhere, it’s easy to get around and it’s three degrees of separation in terms of who you know within this city. Which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on who you speak to.
Canberra is my safe place. I know how to get places without using my maps, I know most of the best restaurants in Canberra that never fail to give me a great experience and I don’t have to think too much about where I can go explore on the weekends because I already know what’s on offer here. Canberra is my constant in terms of living, though I feel like there’s a part of me I have been wanting to discover outside of Canberra. I’ve explored and holidayed in a lot of places all up the East Coast of Australia and have a heap of close family on the coast which has had me almost move to be closer to them more times than I can count. But I’ve never gone. I mean, I did leave Canberra once when I was 5 years old to live overseas with my family but that stint only lasted 6 months. Which is practically the length of a long holiday in Europe. I barely remember anything so I don’t feel it counts. I have a heap of friends that have moved out of Canberra to explore other cities and I love visiting them in their new cities and lives. Though I can’t see myself in those cities. I can see myself in different city specifically but I feel like it’s just a dream that will never become a reality. Maybe I don’t want it that much to actually take that leap.
What’s holding me back from leaving Canberra?
I do have certain aspects of my life that are keeping me here in Canberra. I have a really strong and close connection with my immediate family in the Tuggeranong district, while I live on the north side in the Gungahlin area. Though I’m lucky if I see them once a fortnight at the moment with conflicting schedules and my family not really wanting to drive north to visit, which makes it hard. I also have my partner in Canberra, who I live with. He’s mentioned he would move wherever I would if I got a job in another city, but I don’t think I could do that to him. He owns a Canberra based business and I would feel responsible for taking him away from that. He could work from another city but it would take a lot of work for him to set up a new branch of the business in another city without any contacts in the area. He’s already stretched so thin with work in Canberra, I would hate to put that added pressure on him.
I would be lying if I said that the pandemic hasn’t effected how I view any kind of big life change right now like leaving the only home I’ve ever really known. Because it absolutely has. What if we moved and then we go into lockdown again and then we’re even more isolated without family and friends. It’s a real fear of mine not being able to see my loved ones for an undefined period of time. I’ve worked really hard to get my mental health in a good space and I feel like this kind of situation could send me spiralling.
I grew up with a disconnect from my grandparents and extended family who live in another state. Not super far away but far away enough for me not to have grandparents around to help with school drop off or pick up or just popping over for a cup of tea. I worry if I leave Canberra, my future babies will have the same kind of disconnect that I grew up with. Don’t get me wrong, I have and had a great relationship with my grandparents. But it made it sad when they couldn’t attend every school event or babysit me when my parents wanted to go out for dinner. My cousins who lived in the same area as them got this kind of relationship with them and I just feel like I missed out. I would hate to pass on that same feeling onto the next generation. I want my future babies to be able to go to their grandparents whenever they want.
What does it come down to?
Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that I’m genuinely comfortable in Canberra. I think a lot of people who have been here for extended periods of time (or their whole life) feel the same. When you’re comfortable, it can be hard to want to shake anything up and make big moves. Canberra is an easy place to live – it’s fairly safe, a great place to raise a family and everything you need is close. What happens if I leave Canberra and don’t have the same kind of things available to me as easy as it is in Canberra?
