i took my first big trip away from my hometown when i was only 17 years old
and i spent the best part of two months traveling around europe
the thing that shocked me the most during my trip was just how different
everybody was from the people in my hometown since then i've been going between my home country and
living in the united states italy france and spain and i've changed and learned lots in the process
today i'm going to explain why i believe everybody
should take at least one opportunity to spend time away from their hometown
the idea for this video came up because not long ago i was having a conversation with some people
who are a couple generations above me and we were talking about how gen z's and millennials are
way happier to move lots of times in their life and also change jobs and how people couple
generations above hours that's very strange because they were taught to find a job when
they're 18 settle down and live in that place for the rest of their life whereas our generation is
all about hustle culture and mental health and if you're not happy in your job you should move and
travel is way more accessible now so it made me think why isn't everyone doing it then
the first reason why i believe that you should move abroad is to learn and experience something
new primarily by this i obviously mean languages the reason i moved to spain for the year is
to learn spanish and i tell you what there is nothing like being stuck in a situation where you
have to speak it to help you improve i've been falling into a job where my boss and most of my
colleagues don't speak english and it has helped me improve so much because as an english speaker
we're really used to everyone just settling to our language and when you're from your home
country where obviously your native languages it's really hard to find opportunities to speak
a second language and so even if you're only going for three months being able to learn a little bit
of a new language i think is so beneficial not only for growth but for your cv something i've
learned whilst being in spain is that the holidays here are completely different days that i'm used
to getting off from the uk do not exist in spain and days where i would be working in the uk
are holidays here as a historically very catholic country spain has so many religious holidays
just popping out of nowhere and the month of december is like chef's kiss i feel like i'm
off work more than i'm outward due to all their holidays and it's great and a good thing about
these holidays is it's an opportunity to learn about the history behind why they actually are
celebrating this holiday i've learned so much just from looking up why this is a bank holiday today
and why am i off my work and then i found like pages of history about spain which is really cool
i think one of the biggest advantages of living and moving abroad is you really get comfortable
being uncomfortable and by that i mean going into the unknown is not as scary as it was before
you lived abroad the truth is everywhere in the world is different and the people are different
the culture is different and that's kind of what makes every place so unique but when you're moving
abroad and moving out from what you know people seem rudder or people seem way kinder than what
they're like in your hometown and people are more open or some people are more closed than
what it's like where you're from and i find all of that really exciting but it can definitely be
a bit uncomfortable when you don't know how to greet someone from the country you're in because
in the uk for example we give a big hug to people we're friendly with and if we're not friendly
maybe a handshake and then when you go over to france you're supposed to kiss these people on
their cheeks when i first moved to france i found that really uncomfortable but now i'm
comfortable with it another big building block in the getting used to part of living abroad which is
why i recommend you do it is man the experience you gain from going through all the bureaucracy
of moving abroad he strengthens you tenfold when i was planning and organizing my trip and moving
to spain i did not realize how hard it is to move to think and how hard it is to open a bank account
and how the banks are never open outside of eight to two but when you work during that
time you basically will never see your bank and how you need your tax numbers how you need your
residency numbers and oh my goodness it's been tough but coming out of it i'm so glad that i have
those experiences in my pocket you will really learn what growth means when you live abroad and
you're in a city where everything is new but what i find beautiful about uncomfortableness
is maybe you go to city one day and you think ah this actually all makes sense
i truly believe that not everyone's meant to stay in their hometown their whole life
and a lot of us might find love in a different city i personally don't know where my forever home
is gonna be yet but i'm very excited to move to a few other places to figure that one out
another huge reason why i believe everyone should move about is to change up your mindset when
you're from a small town and everyone around you is brought up experiencing
the same things and going through the same things it's really hard to think
outside the box and i think that's imperative to finding your own independence and finding yourself
throughout your life journey like i said in the intro when i was traveling and i realized just
how open people from mainland europe is i was like i feel better here i think i felt like i
was way more accepted as a person being a little bit out and where in my high school people were
calling me unique with a really negative tone when i was traveling people were calling me unique with
way more positive tone that's what i'm personally all about i don't want to fit in like everyone
else i think we all need to find our uniqueness with him and by moving abroad i really believe
that is way more possible because when you move to a country and you know no one you can't copy
anyone you really have ample time to find yourself something random that i found beauty in in europe
is the fact that on sundays everything closes and i know it comes from a religious background
and that's why it's there but i appreciate that it hasn't changed because yeah it's cool that i
can go to tesco at 3am on a sunday morning but i like walking through the streets when it's empty
and it's a sunday and you feel like the city is finally sleeping i don't know i really love it
now freedom and independence there is nothing that can give you more freedom than moving to a country
where you know no one and no one knows you my goodness you're really getting your independence
when you have to find a flat for the first time in a language you don't know in a city you don't know
you don't really know which neighborhood is good and you don't know what the normal price range
is you also don't know which sites to use all of these learning curves that may seem stressful at
the time really help you gain your independence and and in another way to put it gives you
more freedom when i was struggling with all the bureaucracy here in spain something that i hated
at the time but again now looking back at was i couldn't just mail people and say i have no idea
what i'm supposed to do right now someone help me because no one i know knew how to do it and
so i really had to work harder and gain that bit of independence and figure things out for myself
in general when you move abroad i'm not saying you're gonna lose all your hometown friends
but it's really great to make new connections and change your network up a bit whether that's
in a personal manner or a professional manner you might live in a city where the job that you
want to do isn't really accessible there's not really much gap in the market but you find that
in this other city only one binary plane right away there's ample space to get into this market
i think it's kind of similar when it comes to friendships where you might not feel like you
have a strong sense of community in your hometown this sounds really backwards but everyone expects
you to find your greatest connections to in a place that you're grown up in because you share
experiences and stuff but i've personally found that the best friends i've made are people from
all over the world and despite all the differences from our childhood we now are at the same place
in our life i hope that makes sense you might discover where you were once mocked for something
in your hometown people in this new city love and it can bring out the best side of you
now the last reason which is maybe a little bit cheesy is just to prove it's possible
coming from the uk we really have this stigma of working 50 weeks a year in this ugly weather
where we go for a seasonal depression and the one thing we want to say to our colleague is
can't wait for it to be july finally so i can go my two-week vacation and i really hope i'm
not mocking anyone but it's just the truth of where i'm from but the thing is that we don't
have to live like that there are plenty people that would probably love to live in the uk
but when you don't you don't need to be stuck there you can find another city where
where there's better weather if that's what makes you happier or where there's more growth in
in your employment sector you know you don't have to be working the 50 just for those two weeks a
year i think that's a really sad thing that we go for in the uk and possibly other countries too
when christmas came this year and i had to go back to scotland i was like oh i want to still
be in spain like i really like where i live right now and i'm really happy where i live
i don't want to go home because i found home in valencia now however after all this where you
go for the struggles of living abroad and the growth that comes with it you might even find
that your hometown is where you're meant to be and i think that's just as beautiful as finding home
within somewhere else but i do really think that everyone should at least try to live somewhere new
okay thanks for watching i really love to hear have any of you lived abroad before if so where
and would you ever consider that place a home let me know here are two videos i recommend you watch
and if not that's okay i hope you have a lovely day thank you again for watching and bye you