Before I moved to Singapore people repeatedly told me, 'It
will be an amazing experience for you' and 'I love Singapore, I’m sure you will
love it there'. The funny thing was that the people who were encouraging me had
never actually lived outside of Australia for a year or longer, in fact most
had never even moved anywhere around the world! Naturally, when people told me
this, I tried incredibly hard to believe them, although I found myself to be
blinded by my own fear and the assumed certainty that I would hate living in
Singapore even though I had never actually experienced life there before.
Now that I have been
living here for almost a year now and have conquered some of the struggles that
come with moving overseas, I am proud to say that this has by far been the best
experience of my life. I have come so far; from the girl who desperately wanted
to stay comfortable, never reaching out and exploring new things, to the person
who now finds thrill and extreme amounts of excitement in being challenged,
trying out new things and getting out of my comfort zone.
I am writing this blog post as I would love to share with
you all, why exactly living abroad has become the best and most rewarding experience
of my life:
I have become more adventurous: This factor extends into many different
aspects of living here. One of the more obvious is that I enjoy trying out new
foods of which I may have steered away from when I first moved here, whether it
is because they are extremely spicy or have unique flavouring which I am not
that used to. In case you were wondering one of the more daring I have tried is
dried Cuttlefish and I can definitely say that I am not a fan!!
I have also become more daring in the sense that I have
really been aiming to get the most out of each experience. I have dared to be different; opening my eyes
to new experiences, getting to know new people, understanding all aspects of
this culture; mostly doing things that I wouldn’t be able to do in
Australia.
I have learnt to
enjoy challenging myself: When moving somewhere new is it obvious that
there will be many challenges to overcome in order to enjoy your new home. For me,
challenges came in the forms of breaking language barriers and making friends
in a country where I knew no one.
When I moved here it was initially difficult to hold a
conversation who did not know strong English as I had never really experienced
this living in Australia. I embarrassingly kept saying 'pardon'!! Although with
time, practice and attentiveness I no longer struggle with this as much anymore.
In fact when I caught a taxi home from driving school last week my cab driver
admitted he didn’t know much English, yet for the entire trip home I was able
to manage a long conversation with him with ease.
I now have friends
from around the world: This point is
linked to how I have enjoyed challenging myself. Making friends was one of the
biggest challenges for me and probably the most daunting. It has been a very,
very long time that I had to move somewhere and not know anyone. Having good
friends naturally makes everything easier. I found that by being confident and
not shying away from the fear of meeting new people, I was able to make really
amazing friends really quickly!! As I have made light upon in past posts; the
people I have met living here have been the best people I have ever met. My
experience would not nearly be as great without them and plus, I now have
friends around the world!! Amazing.
By challenging myself in this way, as well as the ways I
mentioned in the previous point, I have been able to become more open minded;
fearing less. For me becoming open
minded has become one of the best things that has happened to me. I didn’t
realise how inward looking I was in the past. I see things differently now, I
value experiences and people way more than I ever have.
You learn to love
yourself more: Through this experience; starting from a place where I knew
no one, didn’t know the culture and didn’t know my way around, I have had to
motivate myself and find my true passions. Through this, I have been able to
recognise new characteristics of myself; witnessing myself evolve and become more
mature in order to get the most out of this experience. I have become so proud of myself due to what I
have accomplished here as I was initially really worried this year would be
horrible. I have been able to see the
positives of this experience override all of the negatives which has allowed me
to love the person I have become. I am now so incredibly determined to live out
many wilder adventures in my lifetime.
Steered away from a predictable
lifestyle: I have done things that most people my age don’t have the chance
of doing. What a great thing it is to be able say that I have lived overseas
for part of my life.
I used to grow up watching Getaway and countless amounts of
travel programs and I could only dream that I would be able to live somewhere overseas
one day. Although, I did not expect that I would have to move overseas so soon,
with so much I felt that I still had to accomplish education wise. I have now
realised that just this; the fact that I had no control over moving was the
greatest blessing of it all. It has caused me to see life differently,
understanding what is actually most important.
Not much good comes from sticking to the status quo. It is
been incredibly refreshing for me to have the fact that I cannot control every
aspect of my life reiterated in such a strong way.
I feared that I would be the one missing out when I moved
away, but as you guys can see, I have gained so much from this experience, so
much more than I ever expected!! Life has so much to offer, but I have learnt
that the only way to get a glimpse of this is to challenge yourself and become
friends with the best companion: adventure. Don't keep thinking the best is yet to come. The best of life can be right in front of you if you make it and choose to believe it.
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