This is rich coming from me – I’ve never lived abroad – but you probably already know that our EIC Nixalina has indeed lived in Singapore for a good few years now. And I’m sure she’d atest the claim that yes, we all should live abroad at least one in our lives.
The adventures that come with moving to a different country are as varied as they come. When we are planning our travel itinerary and we want to get the most of having a vacation in a certain area, we don’t get the full package. This is why we need to live in another country for a little while. But why do we really need to live abroad just once?
It shows great independence
If you are someone who likes to stay at home and has a support network have you ever exercised independence and, therefore, courage? When we move to a new country, everything is new, unfamiliar, and potentially scary. And this means that we can build up the courage to face the unknown by ourselves. The big lesson in doing this is that nothing is that scary. When we move somewhere and we learn to live in a different place for the different culture, we have to get over our fear and learn to discover new streets of new people. You can very easily find a Singapore rent house and truly embrace a different culture by actually living there rather than just stopping over. When you become independent you feel stores of self-resilience.
You’ll discover more about yourself
Do you really know who you are? There is nothing quite like taking yourself out of your comfort zone to get to know yourself better. Moving away from everything that you know and living in another country gives you a wide variety of freedom. When you live in a new country, it’s not just about learning to be independent and resilient, but you have the space and freedom to discover who you really are and what you want. We can live a life full of distractions, and when we step outside of our usual constructs, this is when we can really open our eyes to the world around us and what we want. It makes you rethink who you are but also you begin to start questioning your preconceived beliefs and values. This is the prime opportunity to reshape who you are.
Build a new you
One of the most enticing prospects of leaving your home behind is to recreate a brand new identity. When you move to another country, even if it is for a short period of time, you can start to create a new version. But you can do this without people’s preconceived notions. Nobody knows who you are and they very likely don’t care about your history. The most wonderful thing about going to another country is about embracing a blank canvas that you can use to be a better version of yourself. When you move to a new country, you’ve got to change to an extent, but you also have the opportunity to build a whole new network around you. From a new job to new friends and a new life, you have the opportunity to start afresh and find people that suit your new attitude.
You learn how to adapt
Going far away from what you are used to means that you’ve got to learn how to adapt. Rather than the frustration of having to learn something new at home, this becomes a constant in a new country. Everything is different. And this means that you’ve got to keep an open mind and learn new things as you are going. From the social construct to getting healthcare, as well as the cultural traditions, everything is new and this means that you’ve got to adapt or you will have a terrible time. But what happens is that you stop fearing change and you learn to embrace it. When you start to embrace change as a constant you stop being mentally and emotionally lazy and realise that this change is what drives you.
You learn to trust your instincts
We live in an age where we don’t really trust our instincts. When we have doubts or quibbles we can go online or ask people for advice, but the only true benchmark when we are out of our depth in a different country is how we feel. When we move to another country there can be doubts about everything and there is nobody for you to truly share your insecurities with at the initial stages. This means you’ve got to start trusting your gut instinct. When you start to listen to your gut, you can make strong decisions and really learn to listen to yourself, which is the only person that you should listen to in these situations.
We all need to live abroad at least once, not just for the cultural aspect but for the fact that we can learn so much more about ourselves.
