Hidai became an Irish citizen

A very exciting day for me as I became an Irish citizen in a wonderful ceremony in Killarney.
After 5 relocations, Ireland is home, it's where I belong, and now it's as official as it can be.
I'm also very honoured to be featured by the Department of Justice in their new citizens stories.

I've been waiting for this moment for a long time, and I have been writing & rewriting this post in my head over & over, so I hope I can capture the various thoughts & emotions...

I am originally from Israel where I worked in the Tech industry and gained the experience, skills & work ethic which allowed me, 15 years ago, to start my journey of 5 relocations, to Gibraltar, London, Berlin, Malta & eventually Ireland.

Then, two things happened:
First, myself and my family fell in love with Ireland, and decided to make it our home.
Second, I decided to take a big leap of faith, leave the corporate world, go on my own and start a consultancy business (well, not really on my own, it was of course with my amazing partner Orli Degani, without her none of this would have happened), which is helping "real people" / small businesses achieve their goals.

The people I have been working with welcomed me and accepted me as I am, with my unusual name and mix of cultures from all the places I lived & worked in (including the high energy, quick speaking and extreme hand-waving!), and I have always appreciated that.
And I learned from them about the Irish culture (including the Rugby, slang, and jokes - it's all about the craic!) which helped me integrate into it. Today, I even love having business meetings while walking on the famous Dún Laoghaire pier, which I thought was crazy when I first heard about it!

And while it wasn't always easy, and there were, and will be, tough days, and if you believe what you see on the news & social media this can be very worrying & depressing, days like today bring me hope & optimism, and reinforce my belief that when good people come together, everything is possible.

Speaking of good people, there are too many to thank, so I will try to do that in the comments below!

Thank you Ireland / Go raibh maith agat Éire.

Link to original post on LinkedIn (with many lovely comments)