MeghannMix with Meghann Scully: One door closes, another opens
I HAVE thought long and hard about this decision and nothing about it has been easy. Limerick has become my home, it’s familiar, it’s friendly and it’s a great place to live. But a small matter of the eviction ban being lifted six months ago meant huge changes in my personal life.
I’m almost 34-years-old and for a few years I have wanted to buy my own apartment. Lockdown shattered that dream for me and then as we came through the haze of Covid-19, suddenly house prices soared.
What I have saved now isn’t enough for what’s for sale on the market. Being single means I am working off one income, again deemed undesirable.
This is a common story among my peers. We work hard, we make sacrifices, but for what? I found myself digging deep in recent weeks, searching within myself to see if I could handle change and a move.
Change is uncomfortable, it’s taking a step into the unknown. It’s nerve-racking. It’s challenging. It’s not easy to make changes because we can get comfortable in our surroundings. I don’t like when a supermarket changes shelves around because I had a routine and a plan as I entered the sliding doors.
Then I get flustered trying to find where they now store the eggs or where I can find the cheese I like. It’s amazing how as humans, we thrive off a routine and stumble if we find a simple diversion en route.
I’ve searched online for a place to rent but there’s nothing suitable available right now. I found myself backed into a corner. My options and my time running out.
Feeling very anxious and apprehensive, almost at times a failure, I have made the decision to move home, back to my parents house in Galway.
While home is comforting, it's hard not to feel somewhat embarrassed to be in this situation. Should I have worked harder?
Should I have stayed in every weekend and tried to save more? Maybe I should have skipped the girls' holiday this year. All the what ifs floating around my tireless mind.
Sleep is paramount for me. When my sleep is interrupted, I know I’m stressed out. And that’s how I’ve found myself in recent weeks.
Lacking sleep, irritated and being even harder on myself. But then I remember that I am lucky to have a home that I can move to while I adjust to the period of change.
Controlling the controllables is something I try to tell myself every single day and to remind myself. I can’t control the housing market but I can live at home until it settles. I can’t buy a house right now but perhaps in the New Year, I’ll be able to.
So, instead of being sad or scared, I’m looking at this as a chance to explore, travel, see the world and perhaps gain a new perspective. They say travel is the one thing in life that makes you richer.
I’ll spend some time at home mainly organising my many possessions that I have accumulated over the years and I will use the downtime to relax and read and breathe in that Irish country air. I can spend time with my grandmother and many family members in my village.
And as one door closes, another one opens. When I pull the door behind me in an apartment I have called home for seven-and-a-half years, I’m going to be open-minded. I’ll shed many tears but I know taking this leap of faith will challenge me in ways I don’t even know.
I’m taking a break from a place I have called home for many years but I know I will come back and, when I do, I’ll be stronger, more sure of myself and better equipped to handle change when it comes my way. And, hopefully, with new keys to my new home. It could be a few weeks or it could be a few months but I am going to let life take me wherever I need to go.
So until then, thank you, Limerick.