Project Bxl

I pingpong on a daily basis about this issue but...when our lease ends in February and we all have to move out of our house, I'm thinking I could find a new place in Brussels. Closer to work - no more daily commute - and just a general changement de décor. I've been back in my hometown for over a year and a half now. Time to pack up again, move somewhere new & bigger & challenging. Somewhere I don't know my way around. I have itchy feet, but going abroad isn't in the cards right now. I have a job I like too much, and lots of people here that I want close to me. So the capital seems like a good option.

So why am I afraid to jump into the pool? What if the city is far enough for me to be removed from my comfort zone (even just moving a few kilometres apart is enough to decimate the number of times people meet up & it'll take a while before I know enough people in Brussels that I can drop in on whenever I need a good chat) but not far enough to be markedly different? What if I realize it has exactly the same ailments as the ones that bother me now: a small world in which everyone knows everyone, an artificial Emperor's clothes-esque cultural life, lifeless rainy February streets? Except now I'm dealing with that minus the cushy bubble I call home?

My theory is that yes, any issues or problems you may have are always at least partially in your head and will therefore accompany you wherever you go. Still, I am convinced that the physical/geographic context can worsen or soften those issues and that switching things up can be a trigger. It brings out another side of you, and it might just be enough to give you a jolt and look at things from a different angle. So in extensio, moving can in fact be a marked improvement or a big step back. It's funny that I signed up to go to Toronto before my councellor had gotten to the "ron" syllable, and moving 20 add kilometres takes some seriously deep breaths.

Anyway, I just need to do this and try this and see where it goes. Because I can. Project Bxl (Is anyone watching Project Runway? "One day you are in...the next you are out!" Oh, Heidi Klum - after Tyra, I didn't think I would ever cast my eyes on another famous model/show host who so gleefully indulged in her quest for attention, shameless name dropping, sexually ridiculous cohosts and the joys of casting psychological terror over a dozen of wacky hopefuls while still coming across as, I hate to admit, likeable & addictive) is on. If anyone knows of a place opening up sometime in February, holla.