Leaving China

As some of you may know I am flying back to the UK on the 2^nd February after almost two years in China. The question of how long for is too hard to answer right now, but I will say it’s going to be for an extended period.

I won’t go into too much detail as to why I'm coming back but I will say that the catalyst was graduate schemes. Everyone (in the UK) knows that a graduate scheme is the best way to get a leg up when starting a career; they have higher starting salaries, more responsibility and much faster progression than regular entry level jobs – not a bad deal overall. At university I lazily applied to whatever took my fancy and got through to a couple assessment centres but then that's where my grad scheme journey stopped as I changed tack and went to China. The plan was only ever to stay 6 months, but here I am 2 years later and still in China. It's not a terrible thing that I'm in China, it's actually great! I have a fantastic quality of life that I wouldn't be able to have in the UK, a close group of friends and an amazing boyfriend; but while I was living this amazing life in China time flew by and suddenly this is the last year I can even apply to grad schemes. 

The idea that I was getting too old, or I'd graduated too long ago, to apply for grad schemes forced me to think about what I wanted my future to look like. I could easily stay in China forever, but do I want TEFL to be my career? Not really. It's a great job and I love my students but it's not a career for me. So with this realization I started applying graduate schemes with a much more strategic approach. As the numerical tests and phone interviews starting coming in it really hit me that I might actually have a chance of getting onto a grad scheme and might have to leave Chine sooner than I had planned – there's only so far an application can go from thousands of miles away. 

Now I have started to get invited to assessment centres and that's my cue to head home. It's much sooner than I would have liked, but I don't really have a choice. 

But even though I am heading back with the purpose of applying for jobs - and eventually getting one - I know one thing for sure. This definitely will not be the last time I am in China. I have never had a strong imagine in my mind of what my future would look like and as I think about it more and more, it is becoming clear that England isn't the only option for me long term.

In the cheesiest words possible, I may be leaving China but the adventure is far from over.