Hello July 🙂

Are you currently in France, and when does term start? If you could stay at friends/family and not commit to renting an apartment long term, maybe its worth considering seeing how uni goes for a few weeks and see how much you like it?

Now I’m at uni, missing people is just part of life. It’s bearable and it’s just because I NOW HAVE MORE PEOPLE TO LOVE. If I had never gone, I would never have met all of these amazing people. I guess you might feel the same about when you moved to Australia… I don’t know, but I do know it’s ok to miss people as long as you stay in contact 🙂

Whatever decision you make, take your time and don’t feel rushed or pressured into anything x x x

Hey Katie,

I didn’t want to read and leave without a comment, but I am not entirely sure I have much to say that can help you with your fresh perspective! I’m going to try my best though to give you some things to think about 😀

I love your ideas on compassion, very inline with what I think 🙂 At the end of the day you can’t change his opinion, just as he can’t change yours. Could his opinion be something of the alpha-male ideal – he wants to be the man who doesn’t need sympathy or compassion because he can do it alone and so on, when perhaps in a really tough situation he would quite like the compassion and love you’d give him 🙂 I don’t know but something to think about maybe! I’m 21 and know that a lot of the guys I know pretend to be much more alpha-male than they really are. They think girls WANT a man who are all strong and cold emotionally!

Your children could also benefit from a mix of perspectives in the long-term (obviously as long as they get the love and compassion they deserve and don’t witness any of the differences of opinion in the form of arguments!). Just like with the topic of developing countries and the whole ‘they should work harder vs. not their fault’ thing possibly being somewhere in the middle of your ideas (if it does have something to do with attitude it could be be both personal and environmental in nature), perhaps your differences of opinion aren’t the be-all and end-all and could always comprimise? Your children would learn that whilst it is ok to be vulnerable and that we should be empathetic of people, we also shouldn’t compromise our own strength and goals and we should be driven to achieve things rather than relying on sympathy. Two-sided coin AS ALWAYS in life 🙂

At the end of the day are you happier when with him than without him? Is this worry about your friend and him causing more worry than happiness in general? Do you feel supported by him despite his views on compassion? Only you can decide how you really feel.

Good luck Katie,

Susanna x