Why I’m Building a Second Life Before the First One Ends

It feels important to say this clearly at the start. I am not running away from my life.

I have a good job, responsibilities, people who depend on me, and a life that, from the outside at least, looks settled enough. There has been no dramatic collapse, no sudden revelation, no urge to disappear into the sunset. But somewhere along the way, a quieter thought began to surface. Not loudly. Not urgently. Just gently nagging away in the background.

If I ever start talking about life as a journey in wistful tones, shoot me.

That said, we do tend to break our lives into neat chapters with very firm beginnings and endings. Career. Retirement. And then what? At fifty eight, the narrative becomes uncomfortably short. Career ends. Retirement begins. Then death.

For me at least, real life does not work like that. One door does not slam shut just as another opens wide. Doors creak. Some stay half open. Others refuse to close at all. Waiting for the end before giving any thought to what follows feels increasingly unrealistic and, if I am honest, a little irresponsible.

The last thing on my mind is reinvention or escape. I am under no illusion about the arithmetic of time. There are more days behind me than ahead. But that is precisely why I see little sense in waiting to decide which metaphorical door I might want to walk through.

What I want is a version of life that has been considered. One where curiosity replaces urgency, where learning is chosen rather than required, and where time is treated as something to shape rather than simply endure.

The irony is that the best moment to think about a different way of living is while the current one is still functioning. Energy exists. Income exists. Structure exists. Rather than waiting for burnout, illness, or dissatisfaction to force my hand, I am choosing to think ahead while things are still okay.

Poland is part of that thinking. Not a fixed plan, not an escape route, but an idea forming. Any decision will be a collaborative one, but it would be disingenuous of me to pretend the compass is not pointing east.

I have also come to realise that the more I learn, the more I understand how little I know. That is where my curiosity lives. Learning things I do not yet understand, often badly and slowly, brings me a quiet satisfaction. Technology, in particular, has become less about usefulness and more about wonder.

This blog is not a set of instructions, nor a guide for how anyone else should live their life. It is simply a record of thinking out loud, imperfectly, cautiously, and unapologetically focused on me.

Someone once said that if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans. With that in mind, if you are also wondering what comes next, you are very welcome here.