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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Lifestyle
Zoya Patel

My big move: on the other side of the world, I realised nowhere but Canberra would do

Zoya Patel at an outdoor table
‘I no longer feel the need to convince people I made the right decision by staying’: Zoya Patel in Canberra. Photograph: John Ballantyne

In 2017, I was dreaming of Scotland. I was living in my home town of Canberra with my partner and our cat, working a job I found fulfilling but was also growing tired of and, like many twentysomethings, wondering if “this” was … it?

Staring down the barrel of the rest of our lives, working full-time office jobs and punctuating the week with a few dinners out or the odd weekend away, we felt as though we were in a rut. So we embarked on a great Australian tradition: picking up sticks and flying to the UK.

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