Hi, my name is Cat, i'm 21 and I live in Edinburgh.
Its a simple statement, but its one that I'm still getting use to. I've lived in Edinburgh for almost a year now (for those of you not sure what or where Edinburgh is, its Scotland's capital) but I'm still not completely used to calling it home.
Moving away from home is a terrifying experience, leaving your family, friends and the familiar streets that you've walked all your life is extremely daunting. But so worth it if you move to the right place.
I wanted to write about my experience of moving because its something i'm extremely proud to have done. To give you some background information on myself, back in 2012 I started having panic attacks and suffered majorly with anxiety, in fact its one of the reasons I started this blog years ago. My anxiety came on very suddenly and it was completely unexpected. I had always been very confident and outgoing prior to that. Anyway, my anxiety caused me to basically, leave school and stay inside my house for months on end. Everything outside of my little bubble at home was terrifying to me and caused me to have massive panic attacks on the daily, I couldn't even walk up the street to the shop and the top of the road without shaking and feeling physically sick.
But moving on a few years, I had slowly and surely over come all mental blockage that had been holding me back for so long. After spending three years at college in Aberdeen (where I lived previously) I decided I needed a change of scenery. Growing up my Mum had always told me to move to Edinburgh if i ever got the chance, as she had lived there in her early 20's until she was in her late 30's.
So, after completing my HND in TV Production at college, not wanting to further my education and go to Uni, I decided to move. Just for the hell of it.
The main struggle with moving cities is finding somewhere to live. I mean obviously there are plenty flats on the market to rent, but actually being able to view them was the real difficulty. The journey from Aberdeen to Edinburgh is approximately 2 1/2 hours. I don't drive, and after being a student for 3 years i didn't really have all that much cash for train fairs lying about. Getting enough viewings for the same day was really hard.
I moved to Edinburgh on the 22/08/16, as i needed to start work two days after that. Luckily i managed to get a transfer with my current work, so i wasn't starting a completely new job.
The day i officially moved to Edinburgh i had two flat viewings, which means i moved to a new city without having somewhere to actually live. (I 100% would not recommend doing this as it made moving a lot more stressful, especially for me who doesn't deal with unfamiliar surroundings all too well.)
I had a family friend who let me sleep at theirs for the first 2 weeks, and thankfully i managed to get a flat shortly after moving.
My first few weeks in Edinburgh were amazing but also a little terrifying. If you had told me back in 2012 that I would be wondering around the streets of a city i had just moved to, by myself, and not had the worlds biggest panic attack, i would have never believed you. I moved right at the end of the Edinburgh Festival (a month long event where there are live performances from actors, comedians, street performers and more all over the city) so the city was buzzing with tourist and the whole place just felt so alive. It was a wonderful first impression of Edinburgh and i instantly fell in love with the city. The city is one of the most beautiful places i've ever visited and even after a year I'm still not over the view of the castle.
After a year i'm a little better with getting around, but there is still so much of this beautiful city to explore.
Hopefully you would like to explore it with me.
I guess i'll leave it there for now.
Peace out, stay sweet and keep smiling.
Love, Cat
xoxox
