God, every fucking year I forget I own a damn website and I try to make it one of my new year’s resolutions to start actually using it but I’ve done nothing but fail so far. But yes, I’m going to use the same excuse that I’ve been using because it’s actually hard to find the time to sum up all the changes and ups and downs of my life into a post for y’all to read. It requires a considerable amount of reflection and time to string my life into sentences that make sense.

And I’ll be very fucking honest with y’all, I just haven’t been able to keep up.

A lot happened throughout the year of 2023 – lots of grinding, reflecting (that led to the changes I will soon explain), finishing a degree, being a busybody on crack (not literally, stay in school kids don’t do drugs)…the usual. BUT, this post isn’t about that.

I’m here to tell you about a recent change in my life that has resulted in me stepping into a new era like I’ve never done before.

I moved to London.

I know what you’re gonna fucking say! It’s gonna be something along the lines of “you did WHAT?” But lemme explain, let me run it back for you.

Since I was a teeny, tiny 10-year-old, the thought of living in the UK and being a London girl has always been a thought on my mind, but obviously, since the dream started quite young I had no financial means to pursue it.

That was until I hit my 20s…theeeennnnn the dream became more tangible.

I will save the extremely long story of how we got to this point, but I had my mind set on the UK from August 2023. That was essentially when everything started: the planning, the networking, the vision boarding, and what was to be a several-month-long goodbye tour.

And though I knew that regardless of when in 2024 it would be, I would absolutely be making my way to the UK, there were some opportunities in my professional career that actually almost deterred the trip.

If you’re reading this right now, obviously those opportunities didn’t pan out and as a result, to the UK we moved.

Saying goodbye to Toronto and goodbye to my life solely as a 20-something Canadian wasn’t easy. My last night at my apartment in Toronto was spent psyching myself out about this whole thing and my last week of work and everything in March was really hard on me.

It truly felt like I was saying goodbye to everything so familiar to me, even though (for right now) it’s just temporary. And if you really think about it, packing up and moving your life to a continent you’ve never been to, to a country you’ve never visited, and to a city you’ve only really experienced vicariously through other people and the internet is crazy as hell.

I can’t lie, the thought of not moving did cross my mind many fucking times, even after my visa was approved, after I quit my jobs, after I bought my plane ticket, and after I arranged all of the ground transportation from Paris to London for myself and my cat son, Teekie.

But I knew that if I didn’t do this, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

The opportunity was staring me square in the face: a working holiday program available to select UK commonwealth countries and you’re pretty much approved if you have a couple thousand in savings and you’re between the ages of 18 and 35. Me being young, having no partner, no kids, and really no obligations to anyone in Canada, would’ve been insane not to do this.

I have been travelling a lot more lately, having just taken a 6-day trip to LA in February for the Grammys, but Canada (to get more specific, the Greater Toronto Area) is all I really know. But in actuality, this was even more ammo for me to go. And it was scary — even after the moment I boarded my flight to Paris — that I was leaving everything that I knew behind for the time being.

I’ve put a pause on my old life for a few years – three to be exact.

I am currently on a 2-year Youth Mobility Visa, but I will likely extend it for a third year and figure out what I wanna do after it expires (unless I find the love of my life and they keep me here forever of course, lol).

I have now been here almost two months and it’s been a very interesting experience, to say the least. A little culture shock, a little getting familiar with the unfamiliar, lots of exploring, and have been deadset on finding a job (I guess you could add a little bit exhausting into that equation as well).

I guess you could say that I’ve been busy.

BUT, this wouldn’t be a classic Unfiltered post from yours truly if I didn’t include an update on that last bit, now would it?

Our five, going onto six-week job search came to an end recently after I received TWO job offers, and I am so fucking thrilled to say that my new chapter in the UK involves my evolution in entertainment publicity, where I can now call myself a Senior Account Executive on the Global Publicity team at Organic.

It feels fucking insane to admit this out loud. But to be able to say this at all is an even more insane blessing.

And I’m so excited to bring you all along for this new era of my career.

I hope you stay a little while.

ED out x.

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Listen to: What Do I Know? // Ed Sheeran

Listen to The Sound of Unfiltered HERE