Greetings from OZ
Matt travels in Australia looking for lessons and knowledge!
“Be Curious, Not Judgmental”-Ted Lasso
This past month my friend Casey, aka Sleeves, and I took the leap and hopped on a 1-way flight from LA to Sydney. Nothing to our names outside what was in our checked luggage and a backpack. The only real plan was to spend a couple weeks traveling and hopefully by the end of the 2 weeks find a place where we want to settle down and look for work. The idea was much more daunting than actually putting it into action. Within our first hour at a hostel in Bondi Beach, we met a couple of British people driving up the coast to Byron Bay in a few days and looking for someone to split the rental car with. Things fell into place rather quickly and after stopping at some absolutely gorgeous places up the coast we got to Byron Bay, looked around and said “yeah, this will do for a bit of time.”
After a weekend in Brisbane, Casey and I hopped on a greyhound back to Byron Bay and have been here for about a week. We’ve spent our time here bopping between different shops and restaurants, dropping off our resumes, hanging out on the beach and finding the best happy hours around town. I’ll be starting a job on Monday, and we have also secured a place to stay for the next few months.
While walking back from a pickup soccer game this morning Sleeves and I were reflecting on the first two weeks of this journey and I asked him “Case, mate” (I swear we’ve been saying mate for years haha) “what’s something that’s helped us along the way so far?” He simply responded with this slightly modified Ted Lasso quote, “we’re curious, not judgmental.”
We have come across people of all walks of life these past 3 weeks, and the one thing that has helped us more than anything else is our ability to be curious about where everyone is coming from. Being in a completely foreign land removes you from everything you know and forces you to connect on what’s different rather than what’s similar. It takes away the fear of differences and through that you actually see how alike we all are.
It doesn’t take moving to another country to make me want to be more like Ted Lasso, I think we all want to be more like Ted Lasso. I mean “Football is Life” right?
But, it definitely puts things into perspective. I reflect back on the number of doors I’ve shut because I was judging someone before I gave them a chance - too focused on our differences being what will separate us instead of what will bring us together. I think people often do this more than they realize, too quick to bash on something different rather than ask questions and figure out why it doesn’t fit what you know. So, as I continue this journey—both abroad and within myself—I’ll carry Ted’s words close to heart, letting curiosity guide me, because it’s in the questions we ask, not the judgments we make, that we truly connect with the world and each other.
Cheers Mates!
-Matt
Thanks Matt! As most of you know, after graduating from W&M in 1993 and not sure where my career opportunities would come from, I joined my 2 sisters in Eastern Europe to search for a new path. I met my future husband, Evan, in Budapest, Hungary, and we both found jobs working for Nike, in Vienna, Austria, where the Eastern European offices were based at the time. Here’s hoping your journeys are as successful!
Check out more of my journey here:
Just Keep Showing Up | William & Mary Alumni Magazine
xx
Kir
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