I didn’t really start to travel abroad until my 20s when I decided to travel the world and see all the countries I had endlessly seen and read in magazines and TV programs. My time spent traveling gave me experiences I never even expected to have – I met new friends, skydived in New Zealand, traveled on the Trans-Siberian train through Russia, taught English in China and not to mention all the weird and wonderful sites, food and amazing sunsets and sunrises from all points of the world.
Then came an opportunity to move to Norway – the small, cold, beautiful Scandinavian country with a population of around 5 million people. Despite traveling to many different countries, up until this point, doing so was always temporary – a feeling of enjoying the present moment because at some point it will end and I’ll be home and back to normal life.
Moving abroad was a whole different experience and something that taught me, not only a huge amount about a different country, but a huge amount about myself.
You Are Exposed To A New Lifestyle
Moving anywhere away from your home creates a mixture of excitement and fear. My past traveling experiences gave me some confidence about what to expect but I was surprised and challenged in ways I never even thought about.
When you live in the comfort of your home country, living around the people you’ve known all your life, you can sometimes be stuck and never really realize it. Moving away showed me just how stuck in life I was and opened my eyes to a bigger picture. Adapting to a new lifestyle showed me a different side to life. For example, Norwegian life revolves around the cold winters and it was nothing I had ever really experienced before. It took a while to get used to the -20 degree temperatures but experiencing extremes like that and making them part of my everyday life taught me to adapt to something outside of my comfort zone. I will never complain about the cold again – in fact I’ve learned to embrace and make the most of it!
You Get To Fully Embrace A New Culture
The culture can be very different from your own even if it doesn’t seem like it from the outside. The Norwegian culture is deep-rooted in nature, its language and its mindset. When I moved to this country full of beautiful fjords, mountains and lakes, with the opportunity to see the amazing Northern Lights whenever I stepped out of my front door, it wasn’t just the sheer natural wonder of the country but the way in which Norwegians embrace it and make it an intrinsic part of their lives.
Taking in a new culture adds a different dimension to you, it allows you to be more open and accepting of how other people do things and it lets you see a different side to life. I spent more time in nature than I ever had before, I ate food I’d never heard of and I took on their customs, their manners and their language. It’s not until you live in a new country that your ideas, ways of doing things and perspectives can really change.
You Learn More About Yourself
I learned a lot about myself from traveling but when you take the step to move abroad, you develop fully your ability to adapt and embrace new things. Traveling is only temporary but your choice to stay put in a place far from home and developing your own way of living adds to your identity. It lets us see what we are capable of doing which can’t always be apparent when we live our normal daily lives, at home in our comfort zones.
When I first moved abroad, I was constantly being tested through overcoming challenges and solving problems like finding a home, a job, dealing with people who didn’t always speak my language or sorting out necessary paperwork – and each time I was tested, I was surprised at seeing my potential and just how amazing I could be – it allowed me to be the best version of myself.
You Gain A Sense Of Accomplishment
There are lots of things we can do to get a sense of accomplishment but moving abroad and all that it entails was the biggest achievement of all for me. It took me so far out of my comfort zone with all the fears and ‘what ifs’ that come with it and I survived. It showed me I have the ability to control and change my circumstances – I can make life happen despite the challenges, the fears and the expectations. Challenges allow us to flourish and the challenge of moving abroad not only allows us to see a diversely different country, but it creates opportunities for accomplishments on all levels.
Every time we overcome obstacles we become a little bit stronger, a little bit more confident in our own abilities and we see the full extent of what we’re able to do. Learning a new language was a huge challenge for me and although I don’t speak it that well, I’m proud that I can understand and speak a completely different language at all.
It Helped You Develop A Positive Mindset
Many countries have different collective mindsets developed through their history, culture and way of life and it can sometimes be very different from your own. For me, the Norwegian mindset taught me a lot and lead me to question my own values and how I truly look at myself and live my life.
Norway may be a rich country but the Norwegian culture has been carved out of a history of survival; living in difficult, isolated landscape and working hard to live in these extreme conditions with little money. In Norway, gender equality is high as well as societal equality. It’s no surprise that it’s been voted one of the best places to live in for the last decade.
There is also a huge emphasis on team work and a deep sense of community and togetherness in Norway – something that I realized was lacking in my own country. I took away much more from my experience of living abroad than I was expecting to, and I now find myself naturally applying what I learned and absorbed into my own life, moving forward to wherever I live, in a positive way.
Why Moving Abroad Is A Positive Step
Whichever country you choose to move to, I believe they will all have an aspect of their culture and their own perspectives that can teach you more about your way of living and thinking. Living in a different country infiltrates your thoughts, ideas and beliefs for the better and for me, it made me more confident, humble and accepting of the people around me – all with a sense of worldly openness.
If anyone is contemplating living abroad then I couldn’t recommend anything more. You will learn more about yourself than you ever have before and realize your potential and ability to adapt and embrace through your new environment. Living abroad may not be for everyone, and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity, but I believe the experience will create an insightful and wonderful part of you and I truly believe if we all spent a significant time immersed in a foreign culture the world would be a much better place.
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