I bought a one-way ticket to Singapore and tried to put roots down. Now, I'm saying goodbye to years of being an expat and going home to be an English girl in England.

• Candice Gallagher is a content creator who's lived in many countries from Switzerland to the US.
• She loved living as an expat and bought a one-way ticket to Singapore in 2019.
• But dating hurdles and missing family and friends pushed her to move back home.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Candice Gallagher, a 38-year-old British marketer and content creator . It has been edited for length and clarity.

I grew up in Asia. My family moved to Singapore when I was 8. We lived there for two years before living in Hong Kong for six years.

As an adult, I wanted to go back and reexperience that life. In January 2019, with no job but absolute clarity, I booked a one-way ticket to Singapore.

Asia was where I was meant to be

When I first came back to Singapore as an adult in 2019, I worked at a now-defunct company called Zilingo. I went home to the UK briefly during the COVID lockdown in 2020, but it became clear to me that I had to head back to Singapore.

I secured a job at a fintech company called CardUp and was back in Singapore in September 2021.

Living in Singapore was comfortable. The weather is good, and there are lots of opportunities to travel. It's multicultural, and there's a lot of great food.

But Singapore is an expensive city. I spent about $7,000 a month: $4,000 on rent and about $3,000 on bills from restaurants, bars, supermarkets, traveling, and other expenses.

Dating as an expat was not a breeze

Dating anywhere in the world is difficult, and I've done it pretty seriously in four countries: England, the US, Singapore, and Switzerland, where I did my master's degree.

But in Singapore, I found there was a very small pool of people who fit into the same cultural space I operated in. It was like I was trying to go fishing in a very small pond.

Then I saw a video on TikTok of a group in the US who'd set up a dating event. I posted a video in Singapore and said, "Hey Singaporeans, is anyone with me? Would you like to come to an event like this?"

Then, the whole thing snowballed, and I ended up hosting a dating event called " Singlepore ."

It was pretty amazing. It reflects a desire for offline, real-world ways to connect with people.

Deciding to move back to the UK

I spend a lot of time thinking about life versus lifestyle. In Singapore, I was living a lifestyle that I very much enjoyed.

But I was starting to feel unfulfilled in my life. I'd been overseas for more than 18 years. I wanted to be around my friends from high school and college, so I decided to move home.

So, in July, I packed my bags and moved back to the UK.

It took me a long time to reach that conclusion because I moved abroad when I was 8. The idea of "just being an English girl in England" kicked off a bit of an identity crisis. I was like: "Who am I if I'm not an expat?"

But I think that thought process underestimates how exciting and diverse England can be.

I now feel a sense of discovery about what living in England will be like. I don't know how it'll go — but I'm going to give it a try.