In Autumn 1998 (I think), I visited my cousin who at that time lived in London. She was independent, very intelligent, lived in a gorgeous one-bedroom flat and had an amazing career, she was my role model and still is! I decided that day that I wanted to become just like her; independent, intelligent, have my own flat in London and a great job.
Once I got back home; life happened, as it always does. Years went by, and I never went back to my dream of moving to London. In 2004, my daughter was born and I bought my first flat, not in London but in Norway. In 2007 my Mum passed away and I decided it was time to move on, so Khushi & I moved to London (!) in July 2008. The move was nothing like I had once dreamt of. It was full of pain and sorrow, but it was something I had to do at that time. We moved into a beautiful one-bedroom house. I had got a job as an Interior Designer at a Design Studio, but by the time I could work full-time, the company closed because of the recession. Our life didn’t start as I wanted, with endless of struggles, but I kept going.
Two years later (2010), I had got somewhat control over our lives, but I was still struggling. We moved into our second home; a lovely two-bedroom house. Slowly slowly, we started settling down and life became ‘normal’. In June 2012 I got a Restaurant Design Project who later hired me part-time as their Head of PR & Marketing. Life was good. Six months later, I was made redundant. I then (in February 2013) got a job as Head of PR & Marketing at an Estate Agent, I didn’t enjoy it, but it paid the bills. After the 3 month trial period, I resigned and started working at a local College as an Assistant Marketing Director. Again, didn’t enjoy the job, but I could work around my Khushi’s school hours plus it paid the bills.
In January 2014 we moved to our Dream Home in the Countryside of Hertfordshire. Six months later, I was made redundant (again), I was stressed out and fed up, but then decided to be self-employed and Build My Empire. And I have never looked back!
There were times when I kept asking ‘WHY ME?’, I just felt like no matter what I did, nothing worked out. I tried and I failed, I tried again and failed again. I kept focusing on what went wrong instead of everything that was going right. I am sure you have read the below quote before?
Never regret anything because at one time…it was exactly what you wanted.
I can so relate to this, and I am sure you can too. Once I started changing the way I thought, everything changed. Yes, once upon a time I did want to move to London, and I did! Maybe not the way I wanted, but definitely the way it was meant to be. Sometimes things we want do happen, but not always as we want to. And that is OK, embrace everything that is good, what’s not so good, see it as a lesson, acknowledge it, learn from it and let it go – not for anyone else’s sake, but for your own.
I was blessed to get another chance to start my life from scratch in London. From July 2008 until July 2012, my life was in ‘slow motion’, but since then my life has changed drastically – and I can proudly say that I did it all on my own:
# 1st runner-up, Women’s Empowering Award, Nov 2012
# Won Silver Website for My Unique Home, July 2013
# Won the Inspirational Award in March 2014
# Won Bronze Website Award for Vivacious Mum, April 2014
# Won the Design & Creative Award at Asian Professional Awards, Nov 2014
# Won Silver Website Award for Studio Kiran Singh, Jan 2015
# Won Silver Website Award for Passion for Food, Jan 2015
# Finalist ‘Best in Creative Industries’ category at the 3rd Annual British Indian Awards, April 2015
# Won Silver Website Award for Design the Lifestyle YOU Desire! April 2015
# Winner of Star Awards 2015
[…] we moved in to our dream home in January 2014 and our life was finally as I always visioned it, I reflected on our life since we moved to the UK in 2008. I learnt that unless I started loving and accepting myself for […]