Starting a life in a brand new country with a culture that’s completely different from the one you have grown up with can be the best experience ever. It can teach you and make you realize things about yourself you were not aware of. You are most likely to overcome some fears, to meet your limits and go beyond them, force you to teach a foreign language, teach you how to look after yourself and so much more.
Building your own views in a country you know nobody might be the strongest and most challenging thing you can do. The travelling opens our mind, breaks the wall of the prejudices and shows us what are the things that really matter in our lives.
However, there are plenty of disadvantages that barely anyone who lives abroad admits. Sometimes it costs us way too much to fit in another culture and country. Here are some of the disadvantages we might experience:
Your close family and friends are being sad because of your leaving
No matter how hard they try to hide the feelings, some of them even consider this act as something selfish. It is an amazing thing if you have the opportunity and you eventually make your dreams come true. However, not everyone ends up being happy with your choices. The family members, as well as your friends, might fake happiness just because they do not want to put you in doubts.
Your family and friends can not count on you any more
You are most likely to miss everyone’s birthday and ceremonies. There will be times when your closest ones will need your support and your presence. However, you are miles and miles away from them and the phone lines can not replace the presence of that one person, a smile or a hug.
You might feel lonely
This happens especially at the beginning. It might cost you a lot to make new friends and meet local people. You would like to go out, to talk to somebody or just to have a friend you can count on always. You might even end up meeting new people way faster than you have thought. However, it will take time until they turn into someone you can talk about anything. Bare in mind that you are starting a life somewhere else from the very bottom.
You will lose the feeling of belonging
When you move to another country now all your stories happen somewhere away from the place you have grown up at. You have to try to fit in the environment. You are the person that has to change and adapt to the new surrounding. Therefore you will have to change some of your habits in order to act like a local person. On the other hand, this affects your character more than you think it does. You will never be the same person anymore. Later, when you go back and visit your hometown you will realize how much you have changed. You will be aware of the things you were forced to accept and has nothing to do with the place you have belonged. Suddenly you are a mixture of two cultures. You become completely a new person that does not fit to its maximum in none of the countries.
