A year to remember Dubai style!

Just over a year ago I took a massive step to leave behind all I know to head out on an adventure to the land of sun and sand, Dubai! It was something I have always wanted to do and sitting here a year later it was the best decision I ever made.

Walking away from all that I knew for so long, friends, family and surroundings was exciting but also something that took a while to get my head around. It was a period of mixed emotions and some serious thinking, yeah peeps I know it’s hard to believe but I actually thought about this from all angles.

I came to Dubai only knowing what I read online and from what people had told me about the lifestyle and what it was like living here. After a year of exploring the city and learning about the culture I have fallen in love with this place. I had a steep learning curve to move across in understanding the culture and how I would need to address certain topics but when going through the motions of understanding people I realised how Dubai is built on respect, not only for the person next to you but also to the country, rules and religion. This is something that may seem forced but is an empowering experience because I’ve never seen a community of people who come from many and I mean many different backgrounds co-existing in a peaceful manner.

I am blessed to have met Kat when I first came to Dubai, she took me in and has become one of my best friends spending many a late night out on the town partying to sharing in deeper conversations discussing all that makes the world we live in today. From there I have been so fortunate to have met an amazing group of friends, from the wild party peeps to those who prefer a quiet night in. It’s a mind f@*k when you sit at a dinner table with your friends and you have a person representing every continent at your table, it adds to the charm that is Dubai.

Work here is crazy and that is what we are essentially here to do but I have grown massively in what I do, not only in standing by what I do but also broadening my mind to cultural differences when I am engaging with audiences through social. A year after working on some amazing projects across the Middle East I was offered a position I couldn’t turn down. It was a tough decision as I had a team that I had built up across 5 countries who were superstars but I needed to look at what I wanted and where I wanted to progress. I left Wunderman, 2 months ago and started at Create Media Group, a smaller but specialised agency and I couldn’t have made a better choice! I’m challenged in taking what I know and expanding on this daily, building new relationships with partners and team and also focussing on building a business. I’ve always wanted to start my own business but, and yes insert the yawn, I have been too busy. Whereas now my focus is to build and grow an amazing business under the leadership of Tom.

Overall I am in a great place, I have an amazing job, wonderful friends and am settling into the Middle East comfortably. I can’t believe how quickly the year has gone by but if I look back at the memories from the last year it has been one friggin awesome adventure!

Now that work and my personal life are in check, well just need to sort out my apartment lol cause I changed that too in the last year, I’m looking to travel and being here is the best place to travel from. I want to see the world, take that selfie at the Eiffel Tower, jump in a cab in New York and take some chill time on a remote island somewhere. The only thing is where to go and this is where I need help from you, where have you been in the big wide world and what did you love about it?

I can’t wait to hear from you about your journey and look forward reading about the places that inspired you, giving me direction on where I should go on my travels.

Mitch