I bought a one-way ticket to Singapore and tried to put roots down. Now, I'm saying goodbye to years of being an expat and going home to be an English girl in England.

16.08.2024 - 12:22 / insider.com

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Candice Gallagher, a 38-year-old British marketer and content creator . It has been edited for length and clarity.

I grew up in Asia. My family moved to Singapore when I was eight. We lived there for two years and then in Hong Kong for six years.

As an adult, I wanted to go back and re-experience that life. In January 2019, with no job but absolute clarity, I booked a one-way ticket to Singapore.

When I first came back to Singapore as an adult in 2019, I worked at a now-defunct company called Zilingo. I went home to the UK briefly during the COVID lockdown in 2020, but it became clear to me that I had to head back to Singapore.

I secured a job at a fintech company called CardUp and was back in Singapore in September 2021.

Living in Singapore was comfortable. The weather is good. There's a lot of travel, it's multicultural. And there's a lot of great food.

But Singapore is an expensive city. I spent around $7,000 monthly: $4,000 on rent and about $3,000 on bills from restaurants, bars, supermarkets, traveling, and other expenses.

Dating anywhere in the world is difficult, and I've done it pretty seriously in four countries: England, the US, Singapore, and Switzerland, where I did my master's degree.

But in Singapore, I found there was a very small pool of people who fit into the same cultural space that I operated in. It was likeI was trying to go fishing in a very small pond.

Then, I saw a video on TikTok of a group in the US who had set up the dating event. I posted a video in Singapore and said, "Hey Singaporeans, is anyone with me? Would you like to come to an event like this?"

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Then, the whole thing snowballed, and I ended up hosting a dating event called "Singlepore."

It was pretty amazing. It reflects a desire for offline, real-world ways to connect with people.

I spend a lot of time thinking about life versus lifestyle. In Singapore, I was living a lifestyle that I very much enjoyed.

But I was starting to feel unfulfilled in my life. I'd been overseas for more than 18 years. I wanted to be around my friends from high school and college, so I decided to move home.

So, in July, I packed my bags and moved back to the UK.

It took me a long time to reach that conclusion because I moved abroad when I was eight. The idea of "just being an English girl in England" kicked off a bit of an identity crisis. I was like: "Who am I if I'm not an expat?"

But I think that thought process underestimates how exotic and diverse England can be.

I now feel a sense of discovery about what living in England will be like. I don't know how it'll go — but I'm going to give it a try.