Sweatpants and tea cups: The first six months

Before I moved to London, I dreamt of how I'd spend my time. Walks in Hyde Park. Reading books while sipping afternoon tea (Earl Grey, please). Laughing in pubs with my fancy new English friends. Hitting the high street shops with my Longchamp handbag. Saying words like 'whilst' in my Zara trench coat. Living the life, ya'll.

What I didn't know was moving to another country - another continent - for the first time after you've lived in the same place all your life can be a core-shaking experience. While at home, I was extremely outgoing, industrious and independent. Having moved to London, I found myself (often surrounded by suitcases that had yet to be unpacked) clinging to tea cups and elastic waist sweatpants, determined to hide in my house.

While my husband went to back after our honeymoon, I was left to my own devices. I had an oyster card, a decent knowledge of the tube system and a list of places I wanted to go see. What did I do instead? Wake up at 12 and fill my day with doing laundry, buying groceries and wishing I were home in Michigan, a place I had always said I would leave for bigger, better, more cosmopolitan things. I wasted so much time on unrealistic day dreams of going back to a place that had nothing to offer me. Who dreams of leaving London for the Midwestern United States?

I cried to family and friends about how hard things were. About how it felt like all the color had drained from my life (which evoked the ever-so-profound eye roll). My poor husband tried to cheer me up, encourage me and help me but to no avail. What I wanted was to cry and be miserable because it's easier to do that than to pick yourself up and try to start your life completely over when you have no idea how.

And then I decided to get a grip and get over it because I realized what a pathetic person I had become. The kind of woman I'd be dying to slap some sense into. I didn't move to Darfur or New Jersey. I had said goodbye to suburbia and moved to one of the most vibrant cities in the world to be with the love of my life. I had the opportunity to see and do anything I wanted, meet new people and expand my horizons. At a moments notice, I could get on a train and be in the center of the city that gave us David Beckam, for Gods sake. I was not - and am not - limited. 

I can do anything.

And I will.