I expatriated from my native England at age 18 but leaving my homeland forever was not part of my original plan. After watching a B-movie entitled Not Quite Jerusalem about a romance on a kibbutz, I was inspired to travel around Israel for 3 short months and experience life, volunteering on this kind of communal farm where everyone lives, works, and eats together. My intent was to immerse myself in a different culture, see a few sights from the Bible like Mount of Olives and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, then return home and marry my long-term boyfriend.
Unfortunately, after only a few weeks of us being apart, he accidentally had a drunken one-night stand and knocked up some random girl. Let’s call him Richard, Dick for short. And let’s call her Jane.
Dick’s infidelity and consequent impregnation of Jane was the impetus for me to become an ex-pat as I could not face the humiliation of going home. Ironically, even though I did not think so at the time, being unceremoniously dumped was a gift—a gift that has kept on giving for over 30 years enabling me to live, work and travel in over 64 countries to date.
It was lust versus wanderlust and I feel that I won: his decision lasted one night, but mine lasted me a lifetime.
