The first step is always the hardest.

Leaving the small town of Harare, Zimbabwe on the 19th of October 2014 i set out to to follow my passion of psychology and my love for adventure, Undoubtedly there are many bumps in the road but the first step was the journey of 18 hours to the United Kingdom. Arriving in the Dubai airport for a 6 hour delay was nothing short of impressive but as the biggest airport i had been in, I was more than happy to be back on the ground. My sister Natasha had been given the opportunity to travel with me for a brief two week holiday, Tash hadn’t flown in years and had never been further than South Africa so it was definitely a heart broken journey for me and a panicky one for her. Dubai’s airport supplied us with endless cups of cappuccino coffee and chocolate waffles, smoke rooms and indoor trains (rather impressive) mostly i was just happy to have started this new chapter in my life with some support and encouragement along the way. At 14:35pm we arrived at Terminal 2 – Heathrow International Airport, dying for a cigarette, scared for these challenges, anxious as i hadn’t seen my family in two years and now i was to live with them. Tarryn (The second eldest child from my mother) and Shaye (A family friend) met us and introduced us to this world we were soon to explore, at the time i lived 45 minutes away in High Wycombe and the car ride was fairly interesting, trying to make conversations after years of not speaking wasn’t my best ability. We unpacked, had some coffee and started learning to ‘roll a smoke’ (practise helps but its not for everyone) the taste was better than most prerolled and prepackaged, the smoke was thick and made my chest heavy, my head light and jacket stink! I started to unpack, Tarryn made dinner, Shaye opening wine and Tash phoning home to inform them of our arrival and happiness. When mum came home, it really hit me how much i had not only missed her but missed out on her life, she may be an adult but you constantly grow, i don’t think i have ever seen a smile so wide, her eyes so happy to see us, I hadn’t felt comfortable until she grabbed me and welcomed me to my new home, we drank, ate and figured it was time to call it a night after a fairly restless 24 hours of travelling. Waking up in the chilly morning to breakfast cooking and the kettle boiling, we wished Tarryn and Shaye well as they both disappeared to continue with their lives. Tash and I went into the Eden centre to do some shopping an have some exploration of where i would be living while trying to figure out where to start and what to do we bumped into my sisters dream shop, Starbucks, Trying to get her out of there was absolute havoc as I’m presto sure every Zimbabwean would tell you. § L || O || N || D || O || N § – The biggest, busiest, most chaotic place to step foot in with a tourist who wants to see everything, do everything, go everywhere and i had very intelligently put on brand new shoes for our 9am – 8pm day of ‘touristing’. From looking at churches, taking every tube possible to going on the London eye, braving the London Dungeon and being silly in Sea world, We did it all. As the sun slowly set and the most incredible city in the UK lit up all their Christmas lights, we decided to go get some burger king and get back to Uxbridge to meet mum, we got to Tesco’s for a quick shop and i could hardly walk so we decided to have a smoke by the car and i took my shoes off, not to my surprise my feet were terribly cut. Getting home that evening was nothing of a relief to put my feet up, eat my burger and get a good nights sleep before the next London day which was to no surprise a repeat of the day before. After two exceptional weeks it was time to bid my sister a goodbye and watch her go back to Harare, We had  a quick dinner and rushed to see her off, tears and sadness filled all of us at that moment and off she walked – My little piece of home was gone and i had to brave a new country by myself, meet new people, try new things but mostly i had to adjust to a completely new way of living, one step at a time.