Sitting in Bahrain Airport the other day, waiting for a
flight back to Riyadh and sipping on a cold beer, that old familiar feeling returned
that I know so well, here I go again back to Riyadh, starting back to another
year in the Kingdom, and reflecting on how transient and different and
sometimes lonely life has become in the
last few years…
July 2011, I left Ireland to take up a posting on a remote Military
base in Afghanistan, Its now three years later, I’m working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,
and life is so different to what it was ten years ago
I can only describe the last few years as a mixture of adventure,
relief, grief, a sense of a transient lifestyle, sometimes loneliness, always
interesting but to be absolutely frank, a world completely turned upside down
from where I was ten years ago.
Back in 2004, I was married, I had just set up my own
business, I was Dad to a two year old son and was anticipating the arrival of a
second , was about to go on holiday to Lake Garda in Italy which turned out to
be a fantastic trip abroad that summer. I can still remember having Daithi perched
on my shoulders heading off for pizza in
the warm evenings.
This is not where I now compare life to the present day and bemoan
the cards I’ve been dealt, that is of no use to me or indeed to you the reader
and I actually believe I’ve been fairly fortunate, though the ride has certainly been rough at
times and like many things, some aspects are positive, others not so.
The Financial meltdown from 2008 was a massive blow to
Ireland, and its repercussions are still being felt, though there are now signs
of recovery in parts, primarily the greater Dublin area and also Cork. This is
certainly to be welcomed, though I personally would have concerns about other
Irish towns such as Limerick for example where recovery is somewhat slower and
I belong to an industry that was effectively wiped out and will take some time
to recover properly back home.
My experience of the years from 2008 to 2011 was of running
a business which was less than five years old and seeing turnover literally
collapse by 80% in two months, Its only now when I look back, i appreciate how dramatic
that was for business owners up and down the country and the effects it had on families
and local communities, right up to this day and beyond in the form of failed
businesses, unemployment and for many of us, emigration.
When I finally gave up on the business in 2011 after doing
as much as I could possibly do to keep it alive and to also re-invent myself
for other roles, it came with a huge sense of failure, that you have let your
staff down, your family down, you deny it and try to battle on, but it’s
actually a huge sense of failure which can lead to a dark place if it’s not
addressed.
Emigration has been a way back, a sort of redemption, a
return in confidence, not something I had anticipated in the first year when
based in Afghanistan and with confidence, comes perspective again and a new
focus on the future. I have recovered a lot of lost ground financially
thankfully, and have relocated here to Riyadh since 2012 with an Irish Company
and I have much to be grateful for and which I am.
The change is challenging, there is very little
one can do about it other than adapt. Here in Riyadh, its very transient,
people (particularly ex-pats) come and go fairly regularly, Its incredibility hot,(
43 this week), it lacks a sense of place for a lot of us and its culture and
societal norms can take a lot of getting used to by comparison to other near-by
countries. I have formed new friendships and relationships, I’ve sadly lost
others, but life is going on and there is much to look forward to also. My boys
are growing bigger and smarter, the banks now write polite letters to me (wasn’t
expecting that, and to be honest, I don’t take it too seriously either), I get
more time off than I used to in my own business, I’ve visited a lot of
countries I never expected to and have come to understand the Middle East so
much more than I did before, and on the other side, yes, It’s been a struggle
at times, I really do miss home and look forward to the day when I can return
and re-establish a life in Ireland. Now there’s something to look forward to.
"It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes, What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions" - Jim Rohn
