But
decision-making is almost never something you do alone. Buying a skirt will
almost always be done with one of my girlfriends. Or even if you’re shopping
alone, the nod of approval from an over enthusiastic sales assistant can aid
your ‘to buy or not to buy’ dilemma. Choosing a flat is rarely done alone, and
requires the mirrored excitement of your future flatmates before signing on the
dotting line. Even seeing a particularly satisfied customer in front of you in
Starbucks can sway ones ‘latte or Americano’ deliberation.
So what
happens when it comes to making a decision that people don’t seem to agree
with? I’m no longer talking about trivial decisions such as that questionable
pair of Zara culottes that the girls simply don’t like, or choosing a wrap
after the girl in Pret says the soup is her favourite. How do you deal with
making a life decision that you’re really keen on when everyone around you
appears dead against it? I say this because that was exactly the situation I
found myself in when I was offered this position in Dubai. Aside from my best
friend Pippa, who was practically packing my bikinis for me, the majority of my
family and closest friends were either against it or simply thought it was a
bad idea. Even now I’m yet to hear a congratulations from several of them.
Rather than
being encouraging and excited for me, something I can say with confidence I
would have been had the roles been reversed, I was greeted with reasons not to
go, horror stories about expats in the UAE, or simply told it was ‘a lot to
take in’. I took this in two parts. Firstly I recognised the element of
concern. It is, I’m told, a big transition to move to Dubai as a 21-year-old
English blonde girl. Because of course that was something I didn’t know. But I
also felt an element of selfishness amongst the concern. I was doing something
that defied the status quo, that wasn’t what everyone had expected me to do and
apparently wasn’t what they wanted me to do either. But I’ve been blessed to
grow up and believe I can do and achieve anything. And that’s exactly what I
plan to do.
Nonetheless,
when you have the voices of your most trusted circle all thinking it’s a bad
idea; it has to make you question things. And that I was. Where I had been so
sure of every decision I had made previously, this one, arguably the biggest
I’d ever had to make, had me stalling. Maybe I couldn’t hack it? Maybe it was
wrong for me? Maybe I was better to stay and work in London? Maybe I should
just come home for a while? I shivered at that one. Not that there’s anything
wrong with home. I love where I’m from and coming home to it is the most
comforting thing on earth. For a week or two. But finishing Uni and just moving
back home was not an option to me. I couldn’t think of anything worse. I would
sooner last two days in Dubai than never have tried because returning home was
the safer option.
So I found
myself in a new situation. Where I was making a decision that people close to
me didn’t necessarily agree with, but I knew I had to do it anyway. So this is
my little piece of advice from this post, the lesson learned per se:
Rather than let other people’s negativity stop you from
doing something, appreciate their concern, and channel their negativity into
driving your determination to prove them wrong.
