Back in Australia After a Year in Russia — First Day Home, Beach Day With My Sister.

I didn’t feel any emotion other than excitement to return to Australia. Seeing my family was really something I had waited so long for. Even now that I’m here, I try to cherish every moment with them, because I know that soon this will be a memory for me… and I painfully await the heartache that will come when I leave here again…\n\nFor me it’s the hardest part of living in another country… the separation from my dearest ones. My sister in particular. Often when we leave a place and come back, nothing changes. It’s as though you were in that very place just yesterday. But for me, a lot has changed in just the span of a year. Coming back here I realise that things aren’t the same at all. We no longer have our apartment. We no longer have our jobs here. I see how much my grandparents have aged in the last 12 months. I see my sister who is preparing for the birth of her first child and I understand that nothing will ever be as it was when I left in December 2024. It seems a little melancholic, and in some ways it is… when your life is so perfect, you don’t want anything to change.\n\nSelfishly, you hope that everyone stops and waits for you to return so you can start from where you left off. But that’s not fair. And life goes on for everyone. And while I feel happiness in Russia, there is a sadness that I carry with me… an awareness of what I’m missing here.\n\nWhen I’m with my sister, it’s different now. When I’m with her I really try to take it all in. I don’t want to leave her again. It hurts to even think about. I want to have more time with her. To know that I can get in my car and be by her side. Just a 10 minute drive down the road and I’m there. I want to see her big pregnant belly… I want to meet her child. I’ve never seen a new born baby before. I’ve never even held a baby. I want hers to be the first one that I hold.\n\nComing back to Australia has been harder than moving to Russia ever was. So far, every day has been a challenge here. Maybe it’s because we no longer fully belong in this place. Our life is somewhere else now. And that creates a tension I carry with me. I remind myself that life is an adventure — and this is the one I chose.\n\nFor every happiness there is a sadness, For every rise, there is a fall. And for now, this is the sadness I accept in exchange for the happiness I found in Russia.\n\n00:00 Intro\n00:32 Sister’s place\n02:12 Bondi\n05:12 She said what about Russian coffee!?\n06:40 Beach\n11:45 Thoughts on returning to Sydney\n13:52 Trying to find Sirok in Sydney