A Trip with a one way ticket – Fantastic Fifty

Full of DIY projects. Full of learning. Full of new friends. But most of all full of work.

Lots and lots of work!!  

I am not a traditional blogger,  I have never taken a proper blogging course in my life.  I kind of learned backwards.  I’m sure many of my blogging buddies know exactly what I’m talking about. 

I plodded on.  The first few years I had no clue what I was doing, I did a lot of learning by going on other blogs and lots of Facebook groups where the bloggers shared their knowledge. 

Like the one that has created this wonderful blog hop today. We are just a bunch of gals helping each other out. And it was good because I was determined to grow my blog just the way I do my projects — frugally!
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And for the rest of our family?  We would wait till the girls finished high school and decide if we would stay in Greece or leave. Well, truth be told, we didn’t have to wait six years in order to come to a very definitive conclusion.  This recession which seems to haveturned into a depression for some of us has shown no signs of letting up. 

We did all we had to do as a nation.  We got rid of the old politicians and put new ones in their place because they were supposed to show us the light. They would stand up to the European bad guys and demand that the bailout we had received be reduced or even better erased all together. Otherwise we threatened to leave the European Union.  Well guess what?  Our threat was an empty one.  We now owe more money than we ever have before… in fact, it seems as if our debt seems to be mounting. 
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Honestly, I stopped paying attention to the propaganda spewed on the TV years ago and have gained my health. After all the nonsense that went on a few years ago I realized that very little has changed.  It is harder than ever to start a business and even harder to keep one afloat!

It became painfully obvious to us that the girls would also be better off leaving the land of their birth. 

You don’t sit there and hope for the best when you see that the government has not changed and the politicians are still arguing with each other when there are too many people below the poverty level. 

​You don’t sit there when a sizable number of youth have left the country and moved to other European countries to try and have a better quality of life. This is the so called brain drain.  We have a very high number of college graduates who have been reduced to waiting tables – if they are lucky.  But to get those college diplomas, many families have had to sacrifice and sell property in order to pay for their “free” education.

We have moved to New York.  Permanently!  Because I honestly don’t see any substantial changes happening in Greece for another 20 to 30 years. Maybe the next generation will be able to implement some changes.  I hope so, I really hope so. 

We have left all of our friends behind, my children’s classmates who are off to college now, armed with their hopes and dreams.  I pray that they can realize these aspirations. They are all great kids and are not at fault for the mistakes of the older generations or the European politicians who went along and encouraged this mess.  

As for me, I’m planning to retire in beautiful Greece but that is in the future.  For now I will continue to blog in the land of opportunity and hope to grow and prosper with my blog. Because being fifty is really fantastic once you realize that if you put your mind to something you can achieve a lot. I am living proof of that. 

And I hope you join me along for the ride.  Now for the big question!  Do I need to change the name of the blog from “the boondocks” to “the big city”?  (wink)