Random About Moving Abroad

Nearly three months ago, I landed in Australia. It was my first time in this land, though not my first time moving to another country.

Leaving almost everything behind to experience life in a different nation is something very unique that each person experiences in a completely different way. As someone who has experienced this transition twice, there are a few things that I have learned, things that I believe can hold some value if you are thinking of moving countries, or even if you are just curious about my personal venture. 

The first time I permanently moved countries was to live in London. I had been to London before as a tourist, and despite feeling intimidated by the fast-paced rhythm that served the city, I knew what I was facing. 

I had just finished my degree, but I didn’t want to pursue Law. I was fairly new in the corporate world and also new in a country where I had to express every thought, feeling and need in a different language. I was scared and excited, I felt lonely despite moving with my boyfriend, and I was also carrying some internal baggage that I hadn’t had the time to fix before. 

In London I pursued my dream job until I got it, just to realise that I wanted something different. I changed jobs and careers, at first I did it voluntarily, but later, due to the pandemic, I was forced to change careers again. 

But I was lucky. London is infested by young, talented people from all parts of the world. I had the opportunity to meet people from every continent. All of them had different views about the city and the future they wanted. Some were planning to return to their home countries in the future, and other intended to settle in their new metropolis. 

When I moved to Australia, I was decently established in London. My partner and I were making enough money to share a 1 bed flat near the city centre and travel frequently, something we really love doing. I was attending Hot Yoga classes at my local studio, had a Gold membership at Starbucks and was enjoying cooking more than ever with my new Air fryer. 

When we decided that we wanted to move abroad again, we knew that it wasn’t going to be easy. Some of the commodities we were taking for granted would be gone in the wind, and we understood that some of the actions we would need to take, like looking for accommodation, were going to be stressful and difficult at times.

We were (and still are) very excited. Australia is a beautiful place and we are enormously grateful that we can have this experience abroad one more time. 

We used the first two weeks as if they were summer holidays: loads of exploring, visiting suburbs and beaches, and loads of very needed vitamin D. After those days, we initiated our flat hunt and consequently, our job hunt.

I feel that job-hunting is usually the phase where you start to truly figure out how a country works. You understand which are the priorities, dynamics and social norms. My partner was fortunate enough to land a job in his career. I, on the other side, was not that lucky.

After applying for roles related to my career and attending a few interviews, I started to feel like a failure. I started applying for other jobs that were less related to my professional goals, finally landing one of those.

And to be fair, it was a tough pill to swallow. 

Despite feeling grateful for being able to get a job, there was a tiny part of me that felt like a huge failure. My type of Visa made it difficult for me to get the type of job that I wanted. Despite understanding that fact, It didn’t feel less upsetting. 

There is a famous sentence that says: You can have everything, just not everything at the same time. 

I get to spend a year in another country, I have an incredibly supportive partner and I have a healthy body that goes with me everywhere. I simply do not get to develop my career this year. And that’s fine. 

I believe that’s one of the feelings that you may experience when moving countries, you could find it difficult to develop the career you have been working on for years. On the other side, you could be lucky enough to start a new one that fulfils you even more.

A fun side note: We spent the new year on the plane, just on our way to Sydney. Our flight departed at 10 pm on the 31st of December, and we were on the air for 8 hours before our scale in Vietnam. When we landed in Asia, it was already the 1st of January. To my surprise, nobody announced the New Year. The staff didn’t give away pastries or made any type of celebration. We exchanged some celebratory “Happy New Year” with the lovely Belgian man sitting next to us. He gave us some mouthwatering chocolates from a Belgian brand I can’t remember. And I decided that my only resolution for this year was going to be: to learn to go with the flow. 

Go with the flow and trust the process.

I was aware that some things wouldn’t go the way I wanted. I knew that, occasionally, the stress would get to me, and that some days would simply be imperfect. But I decided that every time I was feeling low or stressed, I would remind myself that I needed to Trust the Process.

Only one year ago, I wouldn’t have dreamed of sitting in a local library in North Sydney, sipping a horrendous artificially-sweetened iced coffee and writing about my new life after moving abroad again. 

If I am honest, things have been going pretty well since we docked, and that’s a sufficient reason to continue pursuing my resolution to Go With The Flow and Trust The Process rather than trying to rock the boat. 

Because when you don’t know what to expect, or what the future departs, the best thing to do is to Go With The Flow:

Keep calm, be adaptable, flexible, and grateful.