There’s two things going on in my head right now. 

Firstly, one of the hardest aspects of moving abroad is making new friends. Meeting new people to have a coffee with on occasion, that part is easy. Well easy is a relative term of course, if you are introverted this is not easy at all, it requires sheer determination to put yourself out there. But making friends, the sisterhood who have your back when things get tough, that is hard to find. 

The flip side is that expat life makes the sisterhood easier to find. You tend to skip a lot of the get to know you stuff, and you get straight into the nitty gritty of life, because frankly you only have each other to rely on. Your family and normal support are nowhere near you, this becomes the family you choose.

I feel truly blessed to have found my sisterhood in each location we have lived, and these women are still the ones that I reach out to when I need them. And they know they can reach out to me too, because to have a sisterhood you have to be a sister in the first place.

Honestly, I didn’t expect it to be easy to make new friends when we were moving to Auckland last year, having lived here previously I knew Auckland is a disparate city and people are very entrenched in their own lives. 

But a year later, I feel grateful for the amazing group of ladies I’ve connected with. We go walking together, we chat on WhatsApp when things go to crap, and when it gets really bad we are able to cry on each other’s shoulders. 

We all come from such different backgrounds, some have never lived anywhere but Auckland. Yet, we have a common ground – our family, or more specifically our daughters. Our values are similar, and our desires for our daughters are similar. When you can connect over the core of life like this, it supports that friendship to blossom.

I was chatting to my mum last week, sharing a conversation I’d had with a friend while walking. She cracked up laughing… “there’s different names, but people are always the same”

What?

Mum went on to explain that she’s always been amused that no matter when I am in the world, I surround myself with people who offer the same support and friendship. Then she started interchanging names, and I started to see a pattern. Oh my.

Have you ever considered your true friendships? Have they ever changed? Or are you doing what it seems I do, finding the same types of people all over the world and literally just changing the names?

Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not! It means we are fortunate to meet amazing people, no matter where we are. It makes me grateful for the amazing support I receive, no matter where I am. 

I really do feel blessed and grateful, because without true friendship how do we grow as individuals? Who would challenge us? Who would ask what we’re thinking? 

So my dear friends, if you are reading this… THANK YOU! Thank you for all your love, support, kindness and sisterhood.