England Vs Australia – Why We Made The Decision To Move From London To Canberra (Ahmed’s Version)

The decision to move from the UK to Australia was not easy!

With the first 9 years of my life spent moving from village to city, I was well travelled by the time I was 9 (not by choice). I was born in West Africa and joined my parents, who were searching for a better life in the United Kingdom, in 1991. I grew up in “Saf London” and fell in love with the high rises and sirens.

When I was in secondary school, my life was once again in a constant state of change; meeting the love of my life in Year 8 and becoming a father just after Year 11, at the age of 18. At this point in life, I was accustomed to change, so what’s one more alteration. Little did I know that the birth of our daughter would be the beginning of what has been the perfect rollercoaster ride! We wanted to give her the world, so as soon as we could, we began to travel…

In 2004, our rollercoaster ride took us across the world, to Australia. This was the beginning of the rest of our lives. Once again in 2015, this time with our son, who was born in 2009, we visited my parents in Australia and this time, my wife and I looked at each other and said whatever we needed to make this happen for our family, we had to do it. Having experienced similar changes at 9 years old, I knew this was going to be a tremendous change for us all and we were about to embark on an emotional journey, which I wasn’t sure the rest of the family were ready for it!

After years of study and then stressful professions, my wife and I fell in love with the slow pace and the sunshine of Australia. I’m a teacher and on the weekends, a football (soccer) coach. My wife works for a charity, so looking after other people or their children is the route we decided to follow in life, however after this visit we realised that we needed to look after our family, so we decided to swap the busy South London for the seemingly slower paced Australia and seize the opportunities that the country has to offer before it’s too late. After all, my parents immigrated to Aus later in life and they have never looked happier.

In the famous words of Shia LaBeouf, we said: “JUST DO IT!”

So, just like marriage, I’m going in with open arms, a smile and my secret weapon, my wife!

Aus, meet the Jallohs