It is with much incredulity that our one year anniversary of the Big Move is coming up in a few weeks, a fact which is motivating me to get some thoughts written on here, as well as to think about what to do with the blog in the future. I had in mind that it would chart my first 12 months here and then end, but I realize that I enjoy writing and reflecting, and it's even more fun to look back at old posts and see how far we've come. On the other hand, do I just put it down as a one year blog, and splinter into other topics that I want to record, such as the bees and our discovery of New Hampshire's great outdoors? Thoughts on a postcard (or a comment!).
I want to revisit some of my first few musings over here in future posts, but today is a more somber topic. Today, Primer Minister Theresa May handed over the letter (a letter! In 2017! Why not tweet?) signalling the UK's intention to withdraw from the EU. I'm still heartbroken by this, as I like to think of myself as a European citizen, part of a great social network of people with multiple languages and cultures able to live and work in closer harmony and unity. For a ridiculous uninformed referendum run solely for the personal political pride of David Cameron to ruin this for me, my generation and my children's generations to come is beyond belief, but then a lot has happened in this last year that I still can't get my head around. I had dreams of being able to tell Jake and Sophie that they could live and work in 30 countries with their 2 passports, and that they should be proud of their British and European heritage. While I still want them to feel British in part, I question how British I feel if this is what the country is moving towards.
I think the problem is that I still feel helpless and powerless about it, a fact which is exacerbated over here by the fact that British news rarely makes it into the public consciousness (which is fair enough, given the shit storm that has engulfed America since January 20th), so even though it's weighing heavily on my mind, there's not a huge number of people here that I can talk to. For sure, I got sympathy at work when I expressed my sadness today, but it was more the kind of sympathy that you give someone who has suffered a bereavement of a distant and unknown relative, rather than someone who has had an integral part of their personality ripped off by a politician. My best connection at work is someone who has a British mother, and while we bemoaned the process for a few minutes and I ranted about how I don't want to pull together as per Theresa May, she politely ended the conversation by saying that maybe we need to accept facts and work together. While I understand her sentiment, it wasn't the kind of response I was looking for, or one that I would have got from a UK colleague.
This different perspective was brought out in a less stressful light this week at lunch. As there are only 3 male teachers at school, we tend to gravitate towards each other and end up eating lunch together most days. We talk sports, and I have learned a lot about football (it still irks me not to call it American football!) and now college basketball with March Madness. It wasn't until this week that one of them brought up soccer and the fact that they had become briefly interested with it a few years back. Now I'm not going to pretend that I have vast football conversations with my friends in the UK regularly, and definitely not at work, and indeed that I've not loved learning about a whole new sporting culture, but I miss having people who know about and get excited the Leicester City story, England's new manager and the current set up in the Premier League. Maybe it's because our lives don't lend themselves greatly to meeting people with those interests, but again it's been interesting to see a different perspective on the things that I consider to be big and important topics.
