Moving Abroad Sucks… If You Are Unprepared
At the age of twelve, I found myself suddenly moving to a new country together with my family. It was August and the streets were still dizzying with all the smells of the summer. But I was scared and confused. I did not know the language and had no guide on how to fit in.
It took five years until I started to finally feel at home. Five years.
Now, assuming that most people reading this are older than twelve, odds are that you would handle moving abroad way better than I did. You would have a plan for the move, figuring out the things you need to bring and buy to make you feel at home, finding new friends and becoming accustomed to the new place.
And yet, I have met countless adults who have lost all hope for fitting in. Everything about the new place feels familiar, but not like home. They still miss their country, their old friends and routines.
Why?
Because they only prepare their physical body for the moving.
Think about it: before arriving to your new home you have done all the research needed to keep you alive and perhaps even entertained. You know where the grocery store is, the nearest hospital, your new office or university, the public transport system and the central shopping street. Even if you are moving to a small village, you have probably figured out all the details for your daily life and your living space.
So when the day comes, our body knows exactly what is going on. We have taken care of it. But our mind is pure chaos.
We worry about the new job. We worry if our family will be happy, if our kids will fit in at their new school, if we will find any friends. Whether the people we left behind will remember us and if it at all was a good decision to move. We worry how it will feel. We worry that we will change and we also worry that we will stay the same.
Worry comes from a place of unclarity about who you are, what you need and what you want. Once you figure these out there is no place in the world where you will not feel like home, because you start to realize that the feeling of home is actually the sense of peace within you that comes from knowing you decide not only who you are, but also how you feel.
To know who you are, ask yourself questions as if you were getting to know a child
To know what you need reflect over your daily and yearly routines and what keeps you ignited
To know what you want, look at your values and passions, and picture a future where any expression of them is possible
For anyone interested, there is a link in my bio to a course that goes more in depth into these three pillars and prepares you for moving abroad or simply guides you towards a new level in your life regardless of your location.
