You’re back! Welcome to my once-a-year blog in which I review the ups downs of my life, closing the door on the previous year to move onto the next.

Moving into the child raising portion of my life, I feel like we’re entering operation warp speed as I flick back through my journal and photos in disbelief at all that happened and at the pace at which things have changed.

So, let’s dive in and see what’s been knocking around this noggin of mine.

Back again. Writing a year in review continues to grow in importance in my life, but also increases in difficulty as the complexities of life increase, yet my writing skills remain the same. This year in a paragraph looks something like this:

My fifth year in review. The importance of these reviews increases as the years go on. A time to reflect, forgive, celebrate, and move on from the current year. The headline is that this year was a little darker, however, that means there was a lot to be learned, so let’s get into it.

Welcome back to another year in review. In this blog, I look back on my year and share with you the trials and tribulations over the past 12 months. Change is again the key theme of this blog, as has been the constant in my life over the past 5 years. This is the fourth year of this series and each year it becomes more important that I do it. It has become such a powerful tool for reflecting and unlocking parts of my brain I may have closed off throughout the year. So, let’s get into it.

I’m ending the year not too distant from how it started, only this time the lock down is self-imposed due to catching omicron. Alas, I’m in good health and after weeks of trying to find the brain space to collate my thoughts I’m here, ready to share another year in review.

How do I begin to collate my thoughts and wrap up a year so different to what most of us could comprehend. After reading last year’s blog, summarizing my year and looking forward at what was to come, I just chuckle to myself. In that, I have realized that while I will always have grand plans and ambitions, much of it can’t be predicted.

It’s Saturday December 14th. I’m currently flying to America to spend Christmas with Alana and I’m sat here reflecting on the last 5 months since I moved to London. My last blog keeping it real took a dive into the up’s and downs of moving to a new city and trying to find your own space…

Reality is a bitch. No matter how you frame it or try to shape it, every now and then, it’s going to take a shot. Now, it’s been nearly two months since I moved to London and being completely honest, it hasn’t been the easiest. Starting again, a new job, a new city, new faces, new routines…

So, it was only a month ago I wrote a blog about moving back in and the trials and tribulations that went along with it. I mentioned while not forever, I was enjoying my time back in Notts. Well, a month on and I’m moving back out…

We’re in May now, so it’s been about 5 months since I moved back to England, back into my parent’s house. It’s almost been a culture adjustment moving back into my own culture, so I want to go over some of the trials and tribulations of the transition…

I want to focus this last blog on my learnings over the last 10-years since I first arrived in America. Particularly for those of you who plan or are doing the same thing in some capacity. Now, I could write a list of 100 things I’ve learnt during this time, but I’ll try to just focus on 10, and maybe we can discuss others in the comments.

In this chapter, we will dive deeper into the nuances of the green card (GC) process and being able to live in America like a regular human being, so stick with me. Quick disclaimer that this is all from my perspective of applying for a GC when you are already married.

At the end of 2018, I was preparing to move back to England after finishing both my university degree and OPT visa (1-year work visa for students who graduate in the US). The big pull to move back was to itch a couple desires and get England out of my system as much as possible before inevitably moving back to the US.

So the last time I updated you on my coming to America story, I was 3 months into my job working as an account executive for an office technology company in Charlotte, NC. I had not yet tackled the issue of sponsorship and was simply enjoying the young professional life of a 20…

For any international student who is not planning on returning to their host nation, nor or they planning on continuing into grad school, barriers to the future begin to start popping up in the brain. Me, very comfortable here in Charlotte, with my friends, my girlfriend, and…

Moving into my junior year, it was time to start focusing on my studies, leaving behind the bullshit general education classes which just collect cash for two years and select what I wanted my degree in. Although, having that two year buffer did prove a nice feature of the U.S. university system…

Just before the end of my first semester I told my coach that I wanted to leave, and then the whole transferring mess began. With my coach not wanting me to leave, I didn’t officially get a ‘release or permission to speak to other coaches’ so that way, I had the option of staying if I didn’t find anywhere else to play…

Coming to the U.S. has been one of the best decisions I have ever made; being able to play football every day, earning a degree, having no student debt, having a beautiful girlfriend, and now, a full-time job. However, there are struggles that the average international students Instagram isn’t telling you…

It’s a very bleak Wednesday morning and I’ve just got back from what should have been a rehab training session, unfortunately cut short due to shooting pain. You see, for almost 7 months now I’ve been battling with a knee injury that just won’t seem to get better.

So this past weekend, I finally completed my long time goal of completing a marathon. I did it at the Manchester Marathon in a time of 03:43:57. In this blog, I’m going to go over a post op evaluation of the race and the event as a whole…

So I finished my last update having just finished a 20 mile long run, at a pace I would of been happy running my marathon at. I also mentioned that I was beginning to have some knee trouble. Well, that knee trouble may well have gotten the better of me…

The first two months of training were very sporadic, runs here and there, no real plan just running however far we felt was good enough for that day. Yes, when Gill joined me, we started to run more consistently and further each week but we still didn’t have a plan…

Roughly two months ago I decided to sign up for the Hilton Head Marathon on February 10th, 2018. Why? Why not! I was 5 months removed from uni football with no real desire to stare at myself in a mirror lifting weights and the thought of saying I’ve ran a marathon sounded pretty cool…

Stereotypes. We all have them and depending on where you are in the world they all can affect you differently. Race is something I’ve never really spoken about out loud and have honestly chosen to ignore most my life as I’ve never really known how to act on it. Yet, with the growing unrest in US it feels more important than ever to share my story and be a part of the change.

From the minute we arrive into this world, we begin to learn. We start with learning about the people surrounding us, learning words, learning to walk and to play. Before you know it,  we’re in school, learning to read and to write. Then, depending on our environment and genes, we start…

We’re now in 2018. The hoopla of the New Year has died down and we’re now settling back into regular life. Regular life for a lot of us consists of rolling out of bed, rolling into work, drinking too many hot beverages till the workday is over, sparingly being productive with our resolutions…

’ve really got into podcasts in the last year. I find them to be a great tool for learning, motivation/inspiration, finding out interesting shit, and just a general alternative to music. In this blog, I want to share with you what I am currently listening to and why I think you should give them a chance…