Farewell, Australia

In January 2018 I got off a plane with my luggage, an address saved into my phone, Uni orientation dates and some money to get by while I was to live in Australia and study for the next 18 months.

August 2018 brought my first Uni placement at a practice called Longevity. Nothing too special, I thought. A week went by and it seemed like a fun place to do placement. A month later, and after initially turning down the potential of working at Longevity, I accepted a job offer for a casual role.

The next 3 years would see me graduate my masters degree, my girlfriend, Ashley, moving across the world to join me in Australia, getting a golden retriever called Murphy, a successful proposal to Ashley, the ups and downs of coronavirus and so many experiences I never thought I would have in Australia.

When leaving Canada and coming to Australia, I was leaving family with the knowledge this would be a temporary move and I would come back richer for the experience. When envisioning moving back to Canada, I thought it would suck to leave behind some great friendships, if I were lucky enough to find some people who I would grow close to, but I thought it would be a hell of a lot easier than leaving family. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The issue is, Longevity has become part of my family. I celebrated my graduation with Longevity. Some of the first people Ashley met when arriving in Australia were people from Longevity. If I want to have a laugh, I’ll call one of the team members to share a story. Longevity clients helped me with my proposal. I have celebrated numerous personal, professional and sporting successes with the team and my clients.

This hasn’t been a job to me. This has been my friend group, my family and my support system. My clients have become the people who I feel as close to as my own family. I need somewhere to go for the holidays? Life advice? Financial advice? Business advice? Real estate advice? You are always there for me. I reflect on my 8,000+ hours of seeing people at Longevity and I have a hard time thinking that I have been able to provide more value than what has been provided to me.

I am forever grateful for the time I have spent with each and every one of you, from Longevity staff to gym staff to clients, I have a debt to you that I don’t think I can repay. It takes a special environment filled with special people to change the course of someone’s life, what they want to achieve and who they aspire to be. You have done that for me.

I am headed to take Longevity over to Canada with the dream of creating the environment to inspire people to be healthier and happier, for longer. If I can cultivate half the environment that I have been able to take advantage of in Australia, I’ll consider it a success. 

Written by Mitchell Hooper