Never Retire: How It Feels To Look Like A Dummy Every Single Day
I have read this from more than one person who has moved abroad. If you can’t handle feeling clueless and looking like an idiot multiple times per day, you probably won’t succeed, let alone thrive moving abroad. Particularly and especially if you don’t know the local language.
There’s no question that I wondered—at least a little—ahead of this move if I would be able to take the emotional punishment! However, you can only anticipate how things might look and feel. You have to make a judgement call on you’re ability to deal with the reality.
And—so far—I’m proud of myself for setting appropriate expectations and rising to the—often humbling—challenge. More on that with a funny story, some experiences and how I see things progressing as we enter month number two living in Valencia, Spain.
I am holding the details of how we found the apartment we’re moving into for tomorrow’s newsletter, mainly because I want to take more pictures. For now, check out the impromptu video tour of our new place that I published yesterday.
While the process had its stressful moments, it actually flowed quite smoothly, as you step back from your own anxiety and other people’s fears and horror stories.
To that end—
In this newsletter, I write real and raw, daily on-the-ground reports of what life is like for me as an immigrant to Spain. We cover a wide range of topics, ranging from logistics (e.g., the apartment hunt or setting up internet and mobile phone service, which we did yesterday) to the lifestyle and emotional aspects (e.g., today’s story).
I want to help aid your process if you’re doing something like this as well as have an honest, more general discussion about the anxieties and emotions that can surround doing—or trying to do—big things in life, particularly at or around middle.
I don’t want to do what I see a lot of people do online. Exploit fears and stereotypes. Too many people write and talk about Spain from a “this or that can be an absolute nightmare in Spain and I am going to help you avoid the hassles and stress” standpoint. This is exploitation and starts the conservation off on the wrong, opportunistic and entitled foot.
I hope that you appreciate that my posts aren’t perfectly manicured. And that they simply take you inside my experience as my wife and I are doing this, as we do it. They’re not meant to scare you before you even start doing something so that I can solve the problem I created in your mind. More on this dynamic, probably next week.
Anyhow, I would appreciate it if you support my livelihood with a paid subscription. Support—and help pay the rent (!)—with a $100 or higher founding membership today and I will comp you with a lifetime subscription. Pay Today & Never Pay Again. Monthly and annual options are also available.