4 Things I'd Have Done Differently
w. 2 | Subscriber #1, Moving to Malawi, Green Talent Forum
Adventures In…
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Last week, I posted on LinkedIn about celebrating my two year anniversary of living in Malawi. Moving anywhere is a huge change but this one, with two kids in tow, job changes for both of us, and moving to a new continent, was pretty monumental. The more I think about it, the wilder it seems to just pick everything up and go - especially when we only knew one person when we moved here…
(in reality it was all of the above :)
We moved to Malawi because my husband got a job on a malaria program here and after living in the DC area for nearly 10 years we were excited for a change of scenery (though we still have roots in the US :) We met in West Africa when I was in the Peace Corps and are delighted to be back on the continent - even if meant that I had to quit my job and find news ones (yes, plural - more on that in another post).
So, in honor of celebrating two years in a new place and thinking of a dear friend who moves at the end of this week to a different city - here are four things I wish I had done differently when relocating:
Starting learning Chichewa sooner
I don’t know what I was waiting for or why I didn’t print the Peace Corps language manual, but I started lessons last year and thoroughly enjoyed having a private tutor once a week to teach me the basics. I stopped taking lessons because I wanted to spend more time exercising/writing/reading and since I wasn’t sure how long we’d be here. Since it looks like we’re here for a bit more, perhaps I should pick it up again…
Compiled a list of local events and gone to them
It is no joke building an entirely new friend group! I used some alternative strategies (like searching for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and school/grad school alumni through LinkedIn) but mostly left people confused because they thought I was trying to network and ask for a job when really I was just looking for friends. Hah! If I’d just gone to more places I could have actually met people IRL - so it goes.
What I should have done was to crowdsource the lowdown on activities in Lilongwe. I like to say there aren’t 20 things happening here on any given weekend that I’d like to do, but there are almost always two or three and that’s largely sufficient. Now I know what they are, but it would have been great to know sooner!
Started exercising
I didn’t realize until I started exercising again this year (it had been awhile - at least since the pre-pandemic times when I could use 2U’s beautiful HQ gym) how much exercising calmed me down.
Since January, I’ve been going to a gym not too far from our house that’s practically all outside and I love it. And this weekend I took my first spin class here and hope to do that once a week (I can’t handle more than that for now - it wiped me out!).
Chilled out about my job search1
As a career coach/someone who works in the career development space, it’s hard for me to not get excited about job searches and job search strategies. It’s almost like a game! While I wanted to get back to work, I didn’t need to rush into it and it would have been fun to savor more time off since it’s so rare to (willingly) have more than a month off at a time at this stage in my life/career. Food for thought on future transitions and how I navigate them/make the most of my time.
Joyfully Linked
For those of you interested in climate jobs, Localized is hosting a Green Talent Forum tomorrow (September 26th). Below are the sessions I’m looking forward to watching (live or recorded):
Instacart's IPO surges as the grocery delivery company goes from the supermarket to the stock market
I have this vivid image of myself from when I was on maternity leave with my second child. I am sitting in my living room, exhausted nearly to tears, while holding my nursing baby. We were running a skeleton parenting crew with my husband working (and no parental leave!) and with one car that he used to get to work.
That day, whatever day it was, I ordered groceries on Instacart and the delivery person knocked on our screen door and I got up to say thank you. When they saw me with the baby, they asked if I wanted help getting the groceries inside and I said that would be wonderful.
Instead of leaving the groceries on the front porch, they brought everything into our kitchen (granted, not too many steps away) and I felt this rush of humanity and connection with a stranger, filled with gratitude that I didn’t have to leave my house or pick up the boxes from my front porch, and thankful for their kindness in seeing me in a moment of need.
May the entire company, including the 5 shares I bought, continue to soar.
Lots of fun news coming down the pike next week (at least, I hope :) Stay tuned!
With love and lemons,
Jennifer
I’m not so sure about this one because I really like the jobs I have and I don’t know if I would have landed them if I had waited on my job search…but something else would have happened and where would I be?
Jennifer, How wonderful it is to see you here. Thanks for sharing your recent e-mail with photo! Love it! I wish you and yours good health and much joy in 2024! And I look forward to reading more....