Katya

Fire Safety Engineer. Lives in Manchester. From Ruse, Bulgaria



For me right now home is Manchester and home, in broader terms, is the UK. Putting this in a very clichéd way – home for most of us is where our family and friends are. Maybe this is one of the main reasons it wasn’t hard for me to move away as it was always just myself and my mum. And, she had always known that my home city is too small for all my dreams and aspirations to become true.  

I moved to the UK, specifically – Edinburgh in Scotland, to study at the university there as it was very prestigious and I have heard the city is pretty awesome but I had never been when I chose it. I never struggled with the language and culture barrier – in fact, I think I learned to love most things Scottish and British very quickly. And, you develop as an adult at around university age regardless of where you are so I didn’t really feel I had a much different experience there than my Scottish and British friends there. 

There are certain things that I like in the UK, which are not the same back home. I like that people here are more liberal in general, it is a multi-cultural country, you can have pride and so on without people judging you or even abusing you. Although it happens but more rarely. In a way it definitely feels that the UK is a ‘developed’ country and Bulgaria is a ‘developing’ country – perhaps those terms are quite outdated now in the internet and social media age but you can still feel the difference. 

I am hoping to buy a house in Greater Manchester very soon as I consider this home but would quite happily move elsewhere in the UK if ever I need to for a better job prospect. Maybe this is also down to our generational understanding of the world – people 40-50 years ago would rather take a worse job closer to their family than move away? 

Perhaps in some very simple and practical terms – home is where you can be stopped on the street and give directions to someone without having to think twice about it. If this logic applies, home for me would be Ruse in Bulgaria, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Manchester and Stockport.