18 years Moving Anniversary!

 28 September 2005 – 28 September 2023

When they say, time flies by they are not kidding, this is exactly how it feels!

18 years ago this day, I arrived in Scotland, Edinburgh Airport. It was a cold morning but dry and I was tired as I had just been on an overnight flight.  I was picked up by Peter and Anne who were strangers at the time but later became friends. We headed to Heriot-Watt University where I was about to undertake a Masters course in Civil Engineering and Construction Management.

Few months prior, when the opportunity came to further my studies, I was happy to take it. I was ready to leave my job I had been at for a year &  that I had got straight after finishing Uni back home ( A job I got few weeks after presenting my dissertation project and before my graduation ceremony that occurred a few months later.)

Years later after moving here (Scotland), I am looking back onto my younger self then, and I am feeling proud, sympathetic and kind to who I was that laid the way to who I am today!

To say it was a lonely, Solo journey would be a lie though it felt that at times. Having grown into a big community most of my life until then, it was the first time in my life I felt lonely, unsure and a big shock to my system in terms of everything I had known!

Though this wasn’t my biggest life challenge; I had lived through the worst a decade before that but then that was becoming a distant memory or shall I say I was determined to burry that part!  Or so I thought!

I see how unprepared I was but then again I don’t think there is anything that can prepare you enough to a new life, a new country, new people, new language, new culture,new food,new perspectives, ways of life, systems, weather to name a few.

I remember a chilly sunny morning in earlier October 2005 when I saw the sun through my room window, blue skies and felt the warmth through the window and directly headed outside to get the full benefit of the warmth of the sun. I was wearing a light short sleeved polo shirt top and a light denim jacket.  As soon as I got outside the door I came back in running hit by this profound chilly cold that I felt deep into my bones! And girl, I was confused! What on earth?

You have to understand that, where I come from, in Rwanda closer to the Equator as you can get, sun equals warmth! So how on earth on this beautiful sunny day with clear blue skies it was this cold? I do have the answers now but I did’nt have a clue then. No one has told me or even if they did, I did’nt understand or it simply did’nt register. That was the start of loooong list of learning about simple small things to big changed perspectives. From the uni halls of residences, to a day in my night dress in city of Edinburgh ( Due to a shortage of power that led to sending us out of campus) through the short days of winter, the beautiful Autumn days when trees shade their leaves and changes colours through long months of cold winter to blossomed flowers of Spring, there was a lot to take in.

My course was shared between two schools within the Campus. One I think in School of Built Environment ( Civil Engineering part) and I can’t recall the name of the school for the second part of my course.

The technology was’nt as advanced as it is now, so the homesick part was challenging! I missed talking to & being far from my family, friends, everything I had known until then. It was finding it hard to relate to anyone, anything. This is me looking back but at the time I did not quiet understand what was happening. I knew it was a good opportunity that I was prepared and ready to embrace but I did not appreciate how hard it was going to be.

However this is a time I will look back to and feel grateful. This journey has opened many doors for me and the biggest was that of self-discovery!

Who was I without my family, my friends? Who was I without the eyes of my community on me,the pressure to conform to certain norms of my roots? Through the new perspectives I questioned  many things I knew as true, got new insights, re-evaluated my values. I became thankful of some of the things I took for granted before and appreciated the support and accepted help a bit more.

I grew throughout, shaded some parts and grew new layers within me. I also kept a big part of me that I was’nt ready to shade and that was the part that kept me going.

Note I am a person of detail, I do love my detail and sees if not everything most things, from subtle to big details. From a reluctant fellow passenger seating next to me on the bus, to a half smiling fellow student opening the door through the Uni halls.

From a content child in their stroller eating finger food taking in their surroundings to a begger on the street, the busker and piper on Princes street to a running passenger hurrying to catch their train at Waverley and a couple in love holding their hands in the silence of the night! I see it all and at times I feel it too.

Mmmh where do I stop? It is getting late so let’s get to the point!

For the last 18 years, I moved country, started a family, had children, moved places, houses and jobs and some more happened in between!

I made new friends,kept many and lost some. Throughout the whole journey there has been one constant and that’s the love and support of my family and network of friends new and old and that I am forever grateful. My heart is happy and full.

It has been a while since I stopped and reflected on some of life milestones however today though it was a long day I wanted to stop and acknowledge this milestone. It is too big to ignore and somehow felt like sharing this with the world.

18 years ago I came to further my studies and  today 18 years exactly I was delivering a training to partners for the organisation I work for. Somehow it made realise that I have gone full circle.  A coincidence or shall I give this a meaning? I prefer the later. Today represent my journey in nutshell: 18 years ago I was at the beginning, earliest stage of my Professional path and now I am sharing what I learned along the way and giving back to the world, communities and for that I am grateful and proud.

I am thankful to my family,families, network of friends,  colleagues and other communities I am part of from near or far!

Cheers to life and all its challenges, opportunities and growth.

Marie-Claire Uwamahoro Nyinawumuntu a.k.a Mimi