I Moved Across The World

It’s pretty ironic as it’s written in the “About” section of this website that I’ve “never quit my job to travel the world.” This always seemed like a cliche thing that experienced travelers would say or a pipe dream that many college grads would wish they had the guts to do. In reality, quitting your job and traveling the world is quite unrealistic. 

To be fair, I still haven’t done this. I’d like to think I’m giving this idea of “quitting your job and traveling the world” a post-pandemic twist. It’s true that for somebody who came out of college on the back end of the pandemic, the modern working world looks a lot different than when I stepped onto campus my Freshman year. Although the pandemic forced travelers to stay home and even terminated my long awaited study abroad experience, it may have created a world where traveling is more accessible than ever. 

This modern world has created a workplace that is location independent. Suddenly, I began to realize that working can still happen as long as you have reliable WIFI. Taking your work with you makes a dream like this, suddenly much more realistic. 

I moved from Chicago to London, England about 4 days ago, so I’m writing this from a coffee shop under my new apartment on the Thames river. Now the UK requires that travelers from the U.S. have a Visa if they plan on staying for over 6 months. Since England doesn’t currently offer a remote work visa, I’ll be using this experience as a sort of “test run”. 

A Few Things That Made It Easier:

I found that making the decision to move this far away from home was easier if it didn’t feel so permanent. 6 months is a great trial period where it’s not too long where you’ll get homesick but it’s still long enough to get to know a foreign environment. 

Also, as somebody who’s only language is English, London became an attractive destination as everyone speaks English. This has helped me feel much more comfortable during this transition period. 

A Few Things That Have Been Tough: 

As a lifelong American, I’ve had trouble grocery shopping in a foreign country like this. I’ve noticed that America has a very unique way of shopping for food and that’s essentially getting everything at once. I quickly realized this isn’t the case in the UK. The entire grocery store is the size of just a few aisles in an American grocery store. There’s only a few choices of everything and sometimes only one. Although this makes decisions a lot easier, there is a lot less variety in the options. 

After 4 days living in another country, It’s definitely taking some time to get adjusted. I was pretty nervous leading up to leaving on this journey but I’ve shown myself that I’m capable of adapting to new environments. I feel like this was just an overall great lesson to learn about myself as hopefully in the future, it will give me more confidence in my ability to trust myself and my adaptability to uncomfortable situations.