The mass exodus

It's tough times in Dubai and many people have had enough. There has been a mass exodus going on for a while and I never thought it would affect me, until the last few weeks when more and more of my closest friends told me they'd decided to leave. The main reasons being that they've lost their jobs, can't make enough money to make ends meet anymore or need a change of scene.

It's started to get me seriously thinking about my future in the UAE, how long can I stay here for, how long do I WANT to stay here for. You see Dubai is very much like a bubble, it's not the real world, you go back to reality when you take a holiday. But to be honest the days, weeks, months all start to meld together and you find yourself doing the same routine day in and day out, plus when when you're an old timer like me, there's nothing really new to try anymore and monotony can set in very easily. Add to that the problems that you have in progressing career wise because of being tied to a company because of sponsorship visas and you can find yourself stuck very very easily.

I think it's very easy to get to a point where you're just literally living from day to day, and that's not me! I want to live life, to explore, to achieve, to have the drive to do the things I've always wanted to do, but I feel like I'm losing that, like the excited twinkle in my eyes has become a dull glazed, apathetic look and that really makes me very sad and also scared. Why scared? Because I'm starting to feel like it's time wasted. When life is too short to begin with, why waste it being in a place where you have no future and can't achieve anything.

So I think now realistically in the next six months time will tell whether I decide to stay in Dubai or look for pastures new. There's a whole big wide world out there for exploring - let's not waste anymore time :-)