Maria Eugenia Nieva was reluctant to complicate her friendship with fellow musician Andrew. Then one day she could no longer deny her true feelings

• Find more stories from The moment I knew series here

When I was 29, I moved from Argentina to Sydney on a whim, following one of my best friends. It was late 2022 and I had a one-year working holiday visa for Australia. Initially, everything was new and exciting, but the shine soon began to wear off.

In Argentina, I was a professional mezzo-soprano, but in Sydney I was racked by homesickness and working several service-industry jobs just to get by.