It is more fun criticizing
From thought catalog
All your bags are packed and ready to go.
You worked so hard to get your CV, your visa, you passport in order. And now you are planning to start anew abroad. Is it a life of honey and wine; of wine and roses.
It isnt. You are going to start from 0. It is as if you were born today.
You are a man without a country. You are a 3rd or even a 4th class citizen. You must prepare yourself for all sorts of indignities, harrassment, and discouragement. Do not cry or despair. You asked for it: Read more
From Thought Catalog
6 Things No One Ever Tells You About Living Abroad
My senior year of college, I decided I wasn’t ready to “grow up”,
“settle down”, or take part in the “real world.” I wanted to see what
else the world had to offer before I settled into a 9-5 routine and
became a boring old adult. At the ripe age of 21, bachelor degree in
hand, I moved from suburban Connecticut to Ireland to work as an au pair
for a year. It’s been six months now since I took that leap, and I’ve
learned more than I could ever condense into one article. Moving to
another country alone allows you to see new parts of this amazing
planet, meet interesting people from all over, immerse yourself in new
cultures, try new things, gain new skills, and overall better yourself
as a human being. You know that, though, because there are approximately
eight million online articles outlining the benefits of travel. What
they always fail to mention, however, is that not every moment of your
journey will be awe inspiring, life changing, Instagram-worthy magic.
While there are a plethora of those magical moments, let me drop some
truth bombs on you.
1. There is SO. MUCH. PAPERWORK.
So you’ve decided to move to another country? Great! Now you just
need to sign your life away to two different governments. Getting a work
visa was the most frustrating, time consuming, redundant, and expensive
ordeal. The process included very specific guidelines, a lot of fine
print, a lot of fees, a lot of poorly maintained websites, and a lot of
long phone calls to various offices (where I received all sorts of
contradicting answers to my questions). It was the biggest relief of my
life when I received that big Manila envelope, though. The UPS man did
not understand my tears of joy and relief, or my attempts to hug him…
2. Long distance is hard.
At this point in time, I think everyone and their mother knows that
long distance relationships aren’t easy. While this is painfully true,
what no one ever tells you is how difficult long distance friendships
can be. When you’re living on different continents, there won’t be any
of those wine, chocolate, and life-chat kind of nights. That type of
comfort can’t always be felt through a staticky Skype call. You’ll lead
very different lives in very different places; your daily gossip will no
longer coincide. The people with whom you once shared every detail may
become the people who only “like” your Facebook statuses, but never ask
about your day. Don’t forget that though they may not have moved across
the world, your friends are on their own journey. Ask about their day.
3. You can’t escape yourself.
People always talk about how much traveling changes you. I think
people often forget that no matter how far away you go, you can’t escape
yourself. Moving far away doesn’t guarantee a dramatic transformation.
If you’re hung up on an ex in Illinois, you’ll be hung up on him in
Italy. If you have crippling anxiety in Minnesota, you’ll be anxious in
Morocco. If you hate being alone in Georgia, you’ll hate being alone in
Germany. Moving abroad will change you, but you can’t expect it to solve
your biggest problems. Being alone in a new place forces you to face
yourself and your problems head on. Moving abroad isn’t a simple
solution for the deeper problems plaguing your mind. Even if you were to
move to the moon, you always take yourself with you. As a fortune
cookie so insightfully once told me, “No matter where you go, there you
are”.
4. You still get sick.
Nothing makes you feel more like a helpless child than sickness.
Being sick while your mother is on the other side of the world is simply
unfair. I’m 22 years old and supposedly a fully formed adult, but when
I’m sick I still want my mommy to make me soup and clean up after me. My
mother is now a seven hour plane ride away, which doesn’t exactly make
it practical to go home and be taken care of when I’m sick. Therefore I
must make my own soup (read: microwave store bought soup) and clean up
after myself. Adult life is rough sometimes.
5. Life at home goes on without you.
Moving to another country requires sacrifice. You’ll miss holidays,
birthdays, your brother getting a puppy, and Friday happy hours, just to
name a few. You’ll be off having your own adventures, and hopefully
having the time of your life. Sometimes, though, you’ll see that one
picture on Facebook of all your friends at your favorite bar, and your
heart will shatter. You’ll realize that everyone’s lives don’t actually
revolve around you, and that they are all carrying on without you. Life
is moving on, and you’re missing a chunk of it. You’ll be missing in the
pictures, you’ll be on the outside of the new inside jokes. In this age
of social media, it’s impossible to avoid reminders of what you’re
missing back home. Some days it won’t affect you. Some days a simple
Snapchat can send you into a chocolate-binging cry-fest of homesickness.
6. No matter how you plan to avoid it, you do grow up.
One of my main reasons for running away to Ireland was to avoid
growing up. Somewhere along the way, when I wasn’t looking, I grew up
(and I guess it wasn’t as bad as I expected). I may have avoided the 9-5
“real world” for now, but I’m a fully functioning adult out on my own
in a very real world. This whole process forces independence and
responsibility on you. Your mom and dad and roommate are on another
continent, in another time zone, (probably) not reminding you to clean
your room and eat your vegetables. There’s no one to nag you until you
wash your dishes, and you’ll have to buy your own toilet paper no matter
where you move. You’ll figure out all the subtleties of adulthood that
they never teach you in school (that’s what the Internet is for,
right?), and you’ll realize that maybe being an adult isn’t the worst
thing. Moving abroad is not always a vacation, but it is always a
journey. It certainly has both its positive and negative aspects, but
living abroad will change you and your life in the absolute best
