i filmed this video once already and
it didn't record
so we're gonna try to do it again
this is a new series that i'm creating
all about things
i'm honestly filling the gaps in the
gaps here because i look back at my old
videos and i'm like oh my god who is
that girl there was a girl that was that
i recognized that felt fear of sharing
the in-depth moments of living here
moving abroad life lessons things like
that i'd like to touch on past
experiences like toxic jobs or
relationships and the things that i've
learned in my 20s living here abroad but
this can also apply to you guys who are
living at home as well that's kind of
the idea of this whole entire thing but
also addressing your questions and
things like that i don't actually have
tea in my hands
but i'm sure i will at some point when
i'm talking i like to sit on my floor
and talk so we're just gonna make this a
very casual thing but this whole series
is about spilling the tea of
you know just life and living abroad
here in general
i'm not gonna touch on topics that you
can easily google like top five places
to move in japan or top things to do in
japan in the summer because that's so
overdone it's
i'm bored with it but i want to talk
about the things that i've experienced
here that a lot of people aren't
discussing when i first moved to japan
the one thing that i noticed the most is
that
a lot of
the noise the conditioning
the influence of close family and
friends was silenced and that was where
i really subconsciously felt i didn't
know who i was and i didn't know myself
i didn't know what i believed in i
didn't know if this was the right thing
to do i had a lot of guilt i had a lot
of struggles internally when i first
moved here
and i think that was a challenge that i
did not expect to have because when i
first moved out here i was like oh my
gosh this is so exciting i kind of felt
like it was a vacation or a long
vacation i was excited to travel i was
excited to meet new people but when i
first came here it was like a clean
slate i was like starting over
it felt very quiet in my mind i think
you would expect to think oh my god
you'd have so much stuff running through
your head so many things running through
your mind but i didn't have that i felt
like
i was starting over
but i wasn't starting over
and that was something that i didn't
know in the beginning i think a lot of
people are confused with that right now
when you do move to another city or you
move to another country it's not about
starting over it's about closing one
chapter and beginning another at the
time i didn't know that i kept thinking
oh i have a clean slate like i'm
starting over i don't have any friends
but the truth is i still
had contact with my friends back home
and my family and things like that but
at the same time i was away from all of
that comfort right and i think a lot of
people are excited to move here and they
don't realize how uncomfortable it is to
move to another country no matter how
prepared you are i felt very isolated i
felt like i had to adapt to this whole
new life it wasn't just studying abroad
this time i didn't know when i was gonna
go home i thought that i was gonna stay
there for stay here for a year and then
go back home and i never did
i came here specifically to teach
english i have a degree in education and
a minor in english as a second language
so i came here for that purpose a lot of
people don't again no shame in that
sometimes that's the only option for
people to even get here and to move
abroad and to experience this country
which is totally fine no shame but i
specifically came here because that was
the goal is to teach english and i was
an assistant
esl teacher in the states so i had a lot
of like
experience under my belt i had
certifications
all of those things and my passion was
teaching so i had no desire to get a
corporate job ever um here in japan that
was not what i wanted to be was a
businesswoman in japan i just wanted to
teach i wanted to inspire i wanted to
learn about the education systems here
so i came here
and i thought that's what i wanted to do
but as i went along
in this life
and as technology started to grow and
adapt and as social media started to
rise i started to find more happiness
and creativity
in social media and creating on social
media and so i started to learn how to
edit and film and my parents used to
film me from the time we were babies to
age 13 basically
and so they were like the og vloggers of
the family and so i was inspired by them
to bring a camera over to japan and
start filming originally just for my
family but as youtube started to become
more popular i started posting stuff
there um and so over time things changed
i thought that i wanted to be a teacher
and when i decided to change my mind
everyone was so shocked so
here's the thing
when you move to another country move to
another city when you're away from
family and even when you're in college
uh moving
to a dorm and you're not near your
family you're a little bit out of your
comfort zone it's a new chapter right
you're still being influenced by a lot
of people i wasn't that far away from my
family so i went home like every other
weekend
um so i was still kind of like in my
comfort space but when you move on the
other side of the world it's a whole new
thing and i felt like the one thing that
japan taught me when i came over here
and this was the most unexpected lesson
that i learned growing up here in my 20s
i moved when i was 23 i'm now turning 32
but throughout my 20s i learned so many
things about who i truly am and what my
beliefs are what my thoughts are and i
learned how to build the skill of
self-leadership and stop
um finding validation in other people
because back home i would always ask my
family should i do this or should i do
that i would always need that
self-validation
or i would always need that external
validation that self-validation that
external validation i didn't know how to
self-validate so
that was something that japan
unexpectedly taught me was to learn how
to create my own path
and that was something that i really had
to wake up to and a lot of people don't
wake up to when they come here stay in
this comfort zone
they don't ask themselves what they
truly want what they want to do who they
want to be how they want to do certain
things how they want to be
and so we stay
stuck we stay in this version of
ourselves that needs to grow right and
a lot of the times we're afraid we're
going to lose people if we change our
minds if we decide to go a different
path but that's all part of the human
growth and process right is that you
outgrow certain people as you outgrow
versions of yourself and i think japan
taught me that the most is how to become
the most honest true version of me
and i see that progress in myself when i
talk to family back home i see that
shift in my mindset
and how strong i've become and how
resilient i've become and the ability to
change allow myself to change my mind
and to give up on things here a lot of
people think giving up is
failure and that's not what it is
it's
giving giving yourself permission to
give up on things to do other things
is
self-leadership like you're allowing
yourself to evolve and to change and to
shift
that's incredible and again japan taught
me that and i think that was something
that was so unexpected going through the
heartbreaks going through the setbacks
um all the happy moments all of those
moments in my life here alone learning
how to adapt um
in a place that feels so isolated
sometimes
was a big challenge for me a lot of
people give up a lot of people
get scared and they
they can't do it and so what i really
want to encourage you guys to do if you
ever were to move to another city or if
you ever were to move to another country
really listen to yourself and find that
inner voice because again when i first
moved here everything was so quiet i
didn't really have a voice i didn't have
that inner voice and now i found that
and i've been able to
use that as a guide to create the life
that i want right this takes a lot of
awareness and self-understanding
in order to achieve this but japan was
able to push me and living here was able
to push me in that direction
and
answer that call and a lot of people
don't answer the call so they kind of
again stay in that comfort zone they
don't know what they really truly want
they start to feel bitter about the
things that are happening in their life
not just here but like anywhere in the
world there was someone in my instagram
comments that was saying like i got a
degree in business and i got a degree in
this and but i don't really want to do
that and um
i am so inspired by you because you've
been able to shift so much and change so
much i don't do anything with my degree
now but the thing is
all of the things that happen in your
life
are skills that you will use later in
life or lessons that you will use later
in life so
me being a teacher allowed me to become
a
better coach
and me
being an influencer and creating on
social media and online taught me
self-confidence it taught me how to work
with other people it taught me how to
express myself
and i think all of these little things
in your life that you've acquired
through other experiences create the
experience that you are living now and
so
that was the biggest lesson that i
learned over here was how to become who
how to unbecome who i was so that i can
become
who i truly am and you don't have to
move abroad to learn this but it's going
to be a lot harder when you're in your
comfort zone and when you're around
people that you've been around all your
life whereas if you were to just up and
move and start a new chapter for
yourself you're kind of thrusting
yourself out into this society
and learning how to find your own way
and find your own path and i've been
through it all i've been through again
the setbacks and the hardships and the
things like that and they weren't it
wasn't always rainbows and unicorns
living here 100 nobody talks about these
things and again that's what led me to
create my older series girl abroad
to share with you these moments that
weren't always perfect but i think japan
really accelerated that self-growth and
that human growth because i was kind of
forced into it right i feel like if
you're in and around people that you
know very well and you're relying on
other people and looking for external
validation all the time it's going to be
hard for you to really
grow quickly and to become that true
self at a faster rate if that makes
sense i don't know if that made sense
this is what i wanted to create this
series for sharing these experiences
that i've had in my 20s living
in another country but also sharing the
more deeper inner work that i had to do
to get to where i'm at today in the best
life ever like i'm so grateful for
everything that i have and um
i'm happy that i made the decision to do
what i'm doing today and to embrace
that self-leadership
and knowledge that i have to create what
i have today i know i've lost a lot of
subscribers but wow am i so happy about
it i only want people that have been
supported supportive of my journey and i
only want people who can see
the imperfections as something that is
strength rights and you want those types
of people to surround you as well in
life in real life and online but this
series is strictly just about
everything that all the gaps that i
wanted to fill in with my older series
girl abroad i wanted to be in these
chats with you and so
again i'm gonna share the deeper
the deeper moments of my life living
here and what's to come in the future
and um what i didn't address or didn't
felt afraid to talk about i want that to
be in this series i hope you enjoyed
this video i don't know if it was as
good as the first time that i filmed it
but
nonetheless i think it was a lot shorter
and i want to keep these pretty short so
thanks for listening and i will see you
in the next video