I was working three jobs and living in my friends garage for the months before I left Australia I sold my car, most of my clothes and packed my most valued items into a plastic box and that I gave to my dad to hold onto. I booked a one way flight to London. I was 22, I was going solo, and I’d only been on one trip abroad in my life. I had no long term accommodation, or even a job lined up. I didn’t have family abroad, and I didn’t know a single person living in England. I had no idea what I was doing. Genuinely. I just left and I trusted that everything would work out (spoiler alert: it did) 😌 but not without a few bumps in the road (of course). But the experience completely shifted who I am, what I value, and how I want to live my life. A one way flight I booked in 2022 turned into living in Portugal. Falling in love. Having so many beautiful experiences and meeting so many beautiful people. It’s something I can’t really explain to the people that would never dare take a risk. I often get asked why I left Australia. 🗣️ “But Australia is paradise!” maybe to you, but maybe I don’t want to live in your paradise. Maybe I want to learn new cultures, eat different food and meet people from all corners of the world. Maybe I want to see the world for how it really is and not how it’s shown on TV. I’ve laugh and cried with strangers, who’ve turned into best friends, who’ve turned back into strangers. 🧳 Moving abroad has taught me so much more than how to book a hostel, or how to navigate public transport in a language I don’t understand. It’s taught me how even a small act of kindness can be the most important thing, it’s shown me how unfair life can be for some and how extraordinary it can be for others. It’s taught me how to trust myself. How to stand up for myself. How to listen to my body. How to say no. How to feel fear but do the thing anyway. Moving abroad is so much more than what it looks like on the surface, and I have no plans to move back home (for now) but it does sit in the back of my head, and I wonder if, and how, I could ever fall back into my old life. #moveabroad #traveller #aussieabroad #liveabroad #lifeabroad