Why you should live abroad at least once in your life

A few years back I decided that I want to leave Switzerland. As I'm half Dutch and often went there to visit my family it was a quite obvious choice to go to the Netherlands instead. So I decided to move there for my studies. Back then I made the decision to leave Switzerland for good and was determined not return in the near future. But life sometimes takes unexpected turns so it turned out that now, only a few years after I made that decision, I'm sitting on my laptop back in Switzerland. So was it worth going in the first place? It definitely was. I urge everyone to make the experience of moving abroad at least once in their life. Want to know why? So read on...

• You get a fresh new start 

Ever got the feeling that sometimes you just get tired of your ever repeating routine, want to drop everything and leave to a fresh start? That's what you get when you move abroad: You will be thrown into a whole new exciting situation where you can change up your job, meet new people and make new experiences and a whole lot more. Nothing else allows you to start over in the way moving away from home does.

• You get to reinvent or simply be yourself again

We all sooner or later get pinned down on certain personal traits of ours. People see and experience us in a certain and as soon as we want to break out of that sheme people start wondering and asking us if something is wrong. So we kind of are sticking to our known roles and traits, if we want it or not. But when you move abroad you will be confronted with people that haven't made an opinion on you yet. This leaves room for reinvention or simply being your true self again.

• You get to learn a new language

Also, depending where you come from and where you're heading, you get to learn a new language in the best possible way there is. There is namely no better way in getting fluent in a language than direclty interactimg with native speakers on a day to day basis. And as you can read in my past article, there are plently of reasons for you to learn a new language.

• You will work on your personal growth

Leaving home is a big adventure and can be quite challenging. Especially settling in isn't always that easy. But once you overcome these initial hurdles you will be rewarded with much personal growth. Because not everyone can say that they had the courage to move abroad and start over. This is already an accomplishment in itself. Then again getting to know other people requires quite some courage too as you have to put yourself out there. From experience I know that you will become a different person when you lived abroad. You not only have a lot of time to reflect on yourself (especially during harder times) but you will become way more outgoing and self-confident.

• You will become aware of what you want in life

A direct consequence of your personal growth you also will become aware of what you want in life and which things really matter to you. So a change in scene can act as a wakeup call as you see that more things are possible in life that you thought. It helps you see yourself and your life from a different perspective and think more long term. At home your often weighed down by set responsibilities and lead such a hectic life that you have little time to question things. You take the things the way they are without thinking too much about changing them. You basically fell victim to your own routines. Also it's the way us humans are, as we  become comfortable with a situation quickly, even then when we know it might not be what we want. But people rather stay in an unhappy situation with little effort instead of risking things and trying to change them. So see moving abroad as a chance to become aware of where you want to go in life and take matters into your own hands.

• You become a more mindful person

When you live in more or less the same place all life long you will become stuck in routines and stop paying attention to the small things and the beauty in them. What it really takes to get back some of the mindfulness we were naturally born with is a change of scene. That's when you start to realize in what way things are different. How the people are different, how the food is different and how alltogether the way of living is distinct. Especially when you go back to your home country you start noticing things again that you never really paid much attention to before. So a change in scene can be somewhat of a wakeup call of your mindfulness as you start paying attention to small differences and details again.

• You will realize which friendships are there to last and which aren't

Not only will a move abroad help you realize who you are but also who your friends are. You will know which people you can count on and who you can call when you're going through a hard time. True friendship has no borders. So while the distance that sets you apart is a challenge to your friendship you can be sure that if it survives, there is little that can part you in the future.

• It's an experience you will never forget...

...nor regret. Even when you might experience more downs then ups you will learn so much from it. You will make memories that stick with you for a lifetime as you get to meet new people and try out new things. There is a saying that you will never regret the things you do but only the things you don't do. As this doesn't really apply to all things, it certainly applies when it comes to moving abroad. Because you always can go home right?

• It will change your perspective on things

You might experience this already when you come home from travelling for a while. You get to see your home country with whole new eyes and take a look at things from a different viewpoint. You don't see things as close-minded as before as you made the experience through moving abroad that there is a lot more options than you think there are. Also, eventually you will be starting to adopt some of the locals attitudes and mindsets which fuels a change in perspective too.Maybe I have helped some of you deciding or contemplating about moving abroad. Or maybe you just wanted to have a good read. Either way, I hope I was able to hold your interest during this post and wish to have inspired you in one way or the other.xxxthe_escapedstudent