The first time I recall ‘feeling the fear and doing it anyway’ was moving from Australia to Canada at the age of 22.

To put this in context – I had always lived at home even when at University. I had only been overseas once – 2 weeks in Bali with my best friend when I was 18.

I was terrified once I committed to going. How was I going to manage so far from everyone and everything I knew?

So why was I going?

As a child I read a lot. Books by LM Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables, Emily of New Moon) were some of my favourites and were set on Prince Edward Island off the east coast of Canada. I desperately wanted to visit.

At university I studied Radiation Therapy and I discovered that there was a world-wide shortage of this skill.

The final piece of the puzzle was being advised near the end of our intern year at Peter Mac (a cancer specialist hospital and the only place to practice Radiation Therapy in Melbourne at the time) that not all 25 interns would be offered jobs the next year.

Given a job was not guaranteed I decided it was time to implement my ”Move to Canada” plan.

We didn’t have email or internet access at that time (yes, I am of that era) so I wrote old fashioned snail-mail letters to all 19 Radiation Therapy departments across Canada, with my resume attached, asking if they had work.

As luck or fate would have it, the head of the Radiation Therapy Department at NEORCC (North Eastern Ontario Regional Cancer Center) had been on a 2-year exchange to Melbourne earlier in her career and liked the quality of the graduates she had seen. A quick call by Jane to some of her contacts still working at Peter Mac and I was offered the job! Not only was there no interview other than a call from Jane espousing the benefits of working at NEORCC, the employment offer included my flight and first month’s accommodation!

After a short period to consider, and chat to fellow Australians who had worked there previously, I accepted!

(I found out later that Sudbury had an image problem, and could not recruit many locals to work there. I was part of the 19 international staff in a team of 25!)

There was a time when I could have backed out gracefully- Peter Mac decided I was ranked highly enough among my peers for them to offer me a job, but I stuck with my plan.

It took about 6 weeks to get a visa, and arrange and hold my best friend’s wedding (how awesome is she to set the date so I could be there??), and be on my way.

During that 6 weeks I was full of fear. My method to avoid giving in to my fear and cancelling my move was to tell as many people as possible that I was leaving in order to make changing my mind harder than going! I was excited as well as scared. A long lived dream was coming true!

As I landed in Toronto a local started talking to me (no chance earlier – I am a plane sleeper) and asked where I was headed. When I said Sudbury his advice was to turn around right then and go back to Melbourne. That didn’t make me even more nervous… much!

I am glad to say I didn’t take his advice. Very glad.

From being picked up at the airport by my new boss – with a couple of bags of groceries ‘to get me started’ – to learning to cross country ski. From kayaking across lakes and seeing bears and moose in the wild to meeting amazing people who are still my lifelong friends. From my first snowfall to discovering what ‘plug in your car’ means. From learning that Domino’s Pizza delivers even in -50C to building my first snowman. Every experience was amazing. I have zero regrets.

So, was my first experience of stepping out of my comfort zone a big one? Probably. Would I do it again? I did 😊. Many times. But that is the subject of other blogs.