Moving abroad can be daunting, but it shouldn't be. You learn a lot about yourself and what you're capable of when you're away from the support of your friends and family and it really helps you to grow as a person. Here are 17 things you learn while living abroad;
1) The first few weeks are always awful and stressful, which is just you becoming aware that you've stepped outside of your comfort zone. You just have to accept that there's a settling in time.
2) You become better at getting things done because you have to be more self-reliant.
3) Having said that, you also learn that you can't do everything by yourself, and you become better at asking for help. And yes, that is a good thing.
4) You'll always find someone who can speak English. It won't help if you're trying to learn a local language, but it is reassuring.
5) You become better at talking to strangers.
6) You learn that you're far more independent than you think.
7) You'll have to actively seek out friends, but you'll always find someone in the same boat as you to do shit with.
8) From spending time getting to know other nationalities, you become a more empathetic person.
9) You become more easy-going and open-minded.
10) Being an adult isn't as hard as you thought it would be.
11) Other cultures really don't drink as much as us and you do worry that maybe we really do have a problem as a nation.
12) Finding people who are good craic might be a little more difficult than you thought. (See point 11.)
13) Other cultures do not necessarily get your sense of humour.
14) As a result, you have to edit your personality in real time.
15) Cutting attachments becomes a lot easier.
16) You become so good at packing a suitcase that it's almost a superpower. A really, really shit superpower.
17) You discover travel really isn't for everyone because you need to be able to adapt to survive in a new environment. Some people are just home-birds... and that's perfectly fine.
