Four years ago I quit my dream job and moved to Australia — here's why I'm back in Ireland

In 2021, Holly Hughes quit her job. In a world that glorifies the grind and rewards hustle, she pressed stop, and gave herself permission to just 'be'. Four years on, she tells her story

Holly Hughes: ‘I searched for the elusive thing Australians were good at: taking it easy.’ Picture: Dan Linehan

In 2021, I emigrated to Australia. In the middle of the pandemic, I quit my “dream job” – a role with the UN Environment Programme that would take me first to Jamaica and then onto countless other greener pastures, professionally and environmentally speaking. I gave up affordable Dublin rent I knew I would never find again and spent my life savings on a one-way ticket to the only airport in Australia that would let me in.

While in mandated quarantine, I wrote an article for this paper about the enormous gamble I had taken; a gamble I was by no means certain would pay off. I talked about being stuck in the ‘middle’ bit of my decision – how I was suspended in the ugly, tumultuous purgatory between the hopeful ‘before’ and the self-satisfied ‘after’.