12 Steps to a Better Life

Now to explain the relevance of my previous rambling post about travel and Britain. I have decided to move to England in August 2012. I know it is completely insane and that I am most likely setting myself to fail horribly in a foreign country far away from the people who love me but I have to try. I am terrified of my decision but I am also scared of graduating. In this time of economic crisis, my future is just as uncertain here at home as it would be in England. I am majoring in creative writing. My dream, my passion is to be a novelist. I have chosen a career path that completely depends on strangers' believing in me. If I am going to fail, then I would rather do it in England so at least one of my dreams would have come true. And if I succeed, how much sweeter would that success be in a place I hold so dear. I realize that I am romanticizing a country I know little about and that I will most likely be greatly disillusioned when I get there but I must discover these things for myself. If I never go to England, it will always be this magical fairyland in my head so isn't better that I learn the truth? I must go.

To make this happen I have developed a multi-step plan.

Step 1 - Figure out where the feck I am going to live in England (pretty important). I know I do not want to live in London because the cost of living is too expensive and also because I am simply not a big city girl. I hope to find employment at an advertising firm or a publishing house. Therefore, the first step involves researching regions that offer an affordable safe place to live and that contain an advertising firm or publishing house.

Step 2 - Price flats in the region I am going to live, price airplane tickets, and figure out how much this adventure is going to cost me.

Step 3 - Sell a kidney and do whatever else it takes to afford to move to England.

Step 4 - Make sure my passport hasn't expired and figure out how to get a work visa.

Step 5 - Write, write, and write some more. Try to get as much of my work published in the next 15 months as possible.

Step 6 - Exercise, diet, and otherwise do what I can to lose weight (perhaps it's not essential to my survival in England but I want to look as hot as possible).

Step 7 - Get an internship for Spring 2012.

Step 8 - Try to develop contacts at the businesses where I want to work in England.

Step 9 - Apply to jobs in England and try to arrange to have a place to live waiting on me.

Step 10 - Figure out if it would be more stressful for my anxiety filled dog to be left behind (with a loving person to care for her) or to fly with me to England.

Step 11 - Decide what I'm taking with me, what I'm having shipped to me later, what I can sell, and what to do with everything else that I own.

Step 12 - Kiss my mama goodbye and fly away.

My 12 Step plan is still a work in progress. I will most likely add more steps as this journey progresses and the order of my steps will get switch around. Still this is what I will be working towards for the next 15 months and I will definitely keep posting as I move forward.

My plan, humor, and romanticized prose is hiding the fact that I am oh so scared of the path I have chosen so please feel free to comment with advice, encouragement, even criticism (I am hard headed and nothing makes me more determined to do something than being told that I can't do it). Also, should a British reader stumble across my little blog, I accept any and all mockery of my ignorant American beliefs but I do ask that with your mockery you will include tips on places to live and work and any other knowledge I will need to make it in England. Thank you.