I’ll post about our epic weekend roadtrip in a moment but first let me tell you about my day.  This morning a few friends and I piled in to my friend Janet’s SUV and we headed in to the city for an ‘Empowering Expat Women’ workshop held by my friend Marie.

I love Marie – she was one of the first people I met when I joined the SSA.  Although I don’t see her as often as I’d like, every time I do, she’s always filled with good, positive energy, she’s always a fountain of genuine care and concern and she gives out some great advice and guidance – not to mention the first thing she said to me today was ‘you look great’, which, lets face it, how could you not love someone who comes out with things like that? LOL!  She kind of reminds me of Julia Roberts character at the end of the film ‘Eat, Pray, Love’? No? Ooook then!

Well anyway, she’s well travelled, centered, balanced (or at least does a good job at appearing so!) and she’s ‘been there, done that’ with most things ‘Expat’ as she’s been an ‘oil widow’ for some 20-odd-years and embraces life with gusto at every step.  Marie is a life coach and helps other people find their way in life when they’re somewhat overwhelmed by it all and lost in the mire and mundane.

Check out her blog here,

http://greatexpatations.wordpress.com/

She’s a great writer and writes such interesting stories and advice on being an expat, whether it’s your first move or your 21st you’ll take something away from this lady.  She’s definitely left a brush stroke on my life!

The workshop today included topics like,

– Where did ‘I’ go?
– What do I want in this location?
– What’s missing?
– What do I already have?
– What do I need?
– How will I get there?

So, not, as most of you would probably have expected from the title – and as most of our hubby’s feared as they waved us off on our way this morning, the feminista, bra burning kind of empowerment for women.

I could talk all day about what went on and how interesting it was but I’ll spare you from my prattling.  It was interesting to listen to the women around the room and their stories.  I was unalike most of them in that I’m pretty young in comparison, I don’t have a career that I’ve had to give up in aid of moving out here and I don’t have kids – but the lessons contained in what they said were apparent and a lot of it resonated with me and my own experiences.

In our introductions we had to give one thing we like and dislike about being an expat.  For me, my ‘like’ was that it’s given me the time I needed to get to know myself a bit, it’s helped me understand who I am and discover myself a lot and for me, that’s invaluable – especially given how even just two years ago I hated my own company.

One lady said that her dad had told her that while it’s all well and good to encourage her daughter in the arts, to ensure she got a degree in something ‘important’ so she could have a good job – she said that this was her turning point, her switch.  What he said made her think about herself and how she’d put aside her passion for music in favour of a ‘decent job’ and from that moment on she decided to pursue her love and dusted off her piano. 

For me, my ‘turning point’ for acceptance of my role here and what I’m ‘destined’ to do right now came when I got into a fight with someone, he said, ‘unlike you, my wife has a job’.  It was like a serious kick in the stomach and I realised that people just don’t, won’t and probably can’t understand what life like an expat is like – unless they’ve been there, and screw it, I shouldn’t have to defend myself or our life choices to anyone.  I do something I love and I make a difference – or at least, so I’m told. 

I’ve had a few texts this afternoon asking for me to enlighten people on being an empowered woman and, truth be told I don’t have the answers.  Everyone takes away something different and has to figure these things out for themselves.

For me, I learned something today, but about myself. 

I learned that I couldn’t learn to become an empowered expat woman.

The reason for this is, because I already am one.

We all are! Ok, we’re not perfect.  Ok, our ‘Wheels of life’ are imbalanced and resemble funny shapes that aren’t anything like the circle they’re supposed to be and ok, we’ve still a lot to work on and improve but sitting there, doing some rather draining soul searching I realised that compared to this time last year I’m a totally different expat woman than I was then.  I am certainly not ‘there’, but I’ve started on the path in the right direction and am finally in a place where I feel capable to use my inner empowerment to improve myself.

I’m a work in progress and right now? I’m ok with that!