How I came about Travelling in the Middle of a Global Pandemic!

So I know I should be giving tips and recommendations for all the different islands in Greece that I visited but honestly I'm just feeling like talking about the origin of how Greece ended up happing because that was NOT the plan I had in mind haha. So keep reading for an entertaining story about how I got fired before I started work, and how I figured out a 9-5 is not for me!

Acropolis, Athens

I was at home, bored off my nut at the thought of doing my placement remotely Monday to Friday, 9-5pm, blah blah blah, honestly the thought of it made me feel sick to my stomach as remote work in a corporate job is NOT my vibe whatsoever. So, being the outrageously spontaneous person that I am, I decided to FaceTime the girls and see was anyone up for moving abroad to do our 3 month placement somewhere in Europe.

If I'm going to be forced to do something that I don't really wanna do and do it REMOTELY, then you best believe I'll try find a way around it, by turning a negative situation into a positive. Now, I should probably mention why I was so annoyed at working from home haha (swear I'm not always a ratty little person). Basically myself and one of the girls were interested in doing our placement abroad since our first day in Public Health and we were deciding between a few places - Hawaii, Philippines etc. but most importantly we were adamant about moving away outside of Ireland. However, as we all know, big bad unnecessary COVID had to rudely flip the world upside-down and our plans were knocked on its head, along with our dreams of working in the Philippines (not being dramatic or anything lol).

So, back to my idea of sneaking out of the country in the middle of a global pandemic woo! I had recruited two of the girls and we were FaceTiming most days leading up to placement discussing where we'd move to, a lot of places were being thrown around and discussed, but we landed on Barcelona and that was the one that stuck!

Thinking about it was soooo exciting and nerve wrecking as we thought about how we'd bullshit our way through airport security and getting a load of random fake ass documents together to help us sell our story to the chaps at security.

However there was one tiny little problem, myself and one of the girls were borrowing laptops from the organisation that will remain nameless *cough cough* hate the letters HS and E *cough cough*. So being the respectful gals that we are, emailed them saying that we were thinking about going abroad to where the restrictions aren't as harsh to do our placement remotely (because lets face it, the restrictions here in Ireland at the time were CHRONIC). We went on then to say 'however, if this is not possible or you do not approve then that is completely understandable'. Roughly speaking, that's what the email said which was obviously phrased in the nicest most respective way possible.

Anyway, days went by,

No reply.

No word back.

Not a thing.

Until...

GOT A TEXTTTTT!!!!

It was from our lecturers asking if we could meet via zoom. Well its safe to say we SHAT the bag and rightfully so! Basically to make a long story a little shorter, the little feckers over at the pretentious organisation had contacted our lecturers behind our back without even replying to us, tattle tailing on our idea of moving abroad!! Like omg wah wah get over yourself its not like we were harbouring the virus - we could've just left the country and not said anything and they'd be none the wiser, but out of respect and curtesy we said we'd give them the heads up.

So ye what happened was they said we were irresponsible and not very professional and didn't want to give us a job for placement so they fired us before we even started. I was so shook ngl I didn't expect them to take our little email inquiring about the possibility of moving away as a fcuk you to the pandemic!

So instead we ended up with a different placement, a lot smaller, but a million times nicer! We both worked from home for nearly 3 months and decided towards the end of placement that we'd pack up and travel Greece, while finishing off our last few projects over there and omg was it the best decision ever!!

The Silver Lining

I do believe that everything happens for a reason and it's all about perspective and how you mentally view the situation you have now been put in. I took this as a big fat sign that I was never destined for a 9-5 job working for someone else in a company laced with rules on how to act and what they consider appropriate or not.

Also one of the girls - Jen - did in fact end up moving to Barca without me and the other girl and is now over there for the foreseeable future working at a job she's obsessed with which makes me so happy!! Because if the three of us went, things might've been different and she wouldn't have pushed herself out of her comfort zone as much. By moving out there alone she has found her place in this world - her little heaven on earth if you will, and I couldn't be more proud of her🥰

So I'm happy it worked out that way and Jen found her future happiness and I figured out that I need to pave my own way in life, and whatever way I end up earning money I will be happy doing it, and will never be made feel as small as I did by that company.

The three best friends that anyone could have

So congrats on making it this far and reading till the end haha I know this was a bit of a long one but I just wanted to get across that shit happens in life but there's no point dwelling on it and being made feel belittled and small over your thoughts, wants, or needs.

My advice: Take the positive out of any situation (because trust me there is always a positive! You just need to open your mind wide enough and take a step back to see it!) and learn from it! Life is too short for worry and stress; so if you're not happy - pack a bag, book a flight and get the hell out of that toxic environment! Do whatever makes YOU happy because at the end of the day you are in charge of your own happiness and only you have the power to control how you feel, so if it's not serving you anymore - 👏GET 👏RID 👏 OF 👏 IT 👏

Thanks a mill for reading and I hope you got something from this little rant haha I'll have a follow-up post on Greece and my recommendations and all that jazz so dont you worry!

See you on the flip,

Laura😜

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