Life altering event

Nearly 6 years ago a long-term boyfriend broke up with me. Now, I wasn't devastated or anything like that, I had known something wasn't right for a while. Anyway, that's not the point.

I had been wanting to go to the UK before I even met The Ex, and when he broke up... Well, what was stopping me?

It took a few months, but I finally decided to actually do something about it instead of just thinking about it. So I handed in my resignation at my job at the bakery (which I didn't like anyway), and I got a part-time job substituting at a nursery. As a substitute I wouldn't need to give any notice before leaving, so I thought it would be perfect for when I could finally go to the UK.

At first I was looking at "normal"jobs and flats online, but it's very hard to do it that way when you can't go for a viewing or an interview and I know nothing of the areas or anything, so I decided I'd take a different route and I started looking at au pairing jobs.

Less than a year after The Ex had broke up with me I was sitting on a plane over to England. I had gotten a job as an au pair in a place called Chesterfield, and as it turned out I stayed in Chesterfield for over 3 years before I decided I wanted to see even more of the world.

The crooked spire of Chesterfield.

I don't think I realized how life-changing the break-up was at the time, how could I? But I'm sure happy it did happen. As far as I'm concerned my life changed to the much better. If someone offered me a chance to go back in time to the time around the break-up I would not take it. I don't want to change a thing.

What about you? Tell me about an even or incident, big or small, that has changed your life in some way. Did you realize it was life-changing at the time? Did it change your life for the better or worse? Would you go back in time and handle things differently if you could?