8/15/2018 0 Comments On living abroad (2)When you tell people you're planning on going abroad, you get all sorts of different reactions and comments, but they all somehow tend to go on the same route. You'll be asked where and why, be told to be careful and be given a list of all the possible stereotypical problems people know of from said country. However, none of this matters, because at the end of the day it's the experiences you'll have that'll build your definition of living abroad.
Now, so far being abroad had taught me a lot. From the basic admin procedures we never understood as kids, to understanding you'll be forced to deal with all kinds of people. You grow up and adapt to a new way of living, and learn that every culture has its issues and you have a right to voice them and work on them in your own terms. These are all things you can guess you'll live through once you move abroad. They are things you unconsciously consider and think of before taking off. And in a way, once they come to you and you deal with them, they just become a part of the experience. However, the hardest part of living abroad I believe is the emotional weight that comes with it. And this is something no one tells you about, because is not easy to explain and even less to cope with. Once you leave, distance becomes much more than just numbers, or plane rides. As Garcia Marquez once put it so well, after a while, you'll have to accept that you're now the friend that's never actually there, and that your mom will now have an “invisible” daughter. With time, you'll get use to dealing with jet lag and time changes, but every goodbye will always feel like the worst one so far. And you'll only discover the true magic behind a hug once you reach 2am in the morning and the only thing you'll wish for is the warmth of that person's arms that are now miles away from yours. No one talks about the sleepless nights where your new room suddenly transforms into the one from your childhood, but as you try to reach for that old toy box, it crumbles, because you’re not there anymore. Texting becomes an even bigger tool and voice notes gain a magic power. And then after a while, it all starts going both ways. When you go back to visit home, there comes a point where you miss your life abroad, the cafes and libraries that now feel familiar to you, you’re friends, the freedom you might have, the little details you love about that city. And suddenly you feel troubled, because even though you’re at home, back with all those things you missed so much, a part of you feels divided into two still, because you now have two homes, or maybe three or more. Now don’t get me wrong, this is not a bad thing. In my book, it only shows that you’ve found a good middle ground, because in spite of all the emotional weight one might experience, if you get to a point where you experience a city enough that you miss it, you’re doing something right.
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About WUTAS23 year old, looking forward to share my thoughts! Entries
August 2018
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