Part 3: Only you can choose.

So by this lesson, I mean that deciding to move abroad is a pretty personal decision. Once you have done it, it is amazing how it opens the world up to you, and with technology like Skype, you will probably end up speaking to your loved ones more than you did when you lived in the same country. Once you move abroad, you have done this huge thing that seemed terrifying, and it really wasn’t that bad. In fact, at times it was pretty awesome.

Still, to make the decision to move abroad requires a lot of focus on that goal. For Dan and I, to move here we had to leave are pretty comfortable life in the lovely Chorlton-Cum-Hardy in Manchester, box up our things, including our lovely Tortoises Eva and Rosie, give away our birds Barney and Lucy (I loved them, Dan felt so-so), and then say goodbye to our families and friends with no knowledge of when we would actually see them again. This is all pretty big, and therefore to actually go through with it and do it, you have to be 100% committed to the plan. It also means you have to truly understand that your life is only yours to live, and only yours. You also have to assume you only get the one, so better make the most out of the one…

I am extremely lucky as I have Dan, who shares goals and ideas with me. Yes, admittedly we don’t always agree and sometimes my pretty off-the-wall ‘hey, let’s move to X, or do X’ can cause the odd eye roll, but overall, I know 100%, that Dan and I are in this together. In fact, most people don’t realise that moving to Japan was his idea! He fell in love with it when we came on holiday, and then become focused and set on making it our home. People always assume it was my crazy idea to move 6,000 miles away from the UK, but in doing so, they overlook that he is, in fact, the mad one. Dan is game to follow our dreams, hopes, goals, and sometimes whims around the world, if it means we make the most out of our one life together:

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

(Mary Oliver)

Still, living abroad certainly isn’t for everyone. In fact, it may not even be for most. Only you can choose if it is for you, and if you decide it is, you then have to remember this is your life, so live it! I will never regret the day we decided to just do it, and start the process of moving here. Once we had spoke it aloud, the game was ON.

So lesson number three is that only you can decide if it is the right decision, country, time in your life. Since moving to Japan, I am proud that my sister and her husband have also had the courage to decide living abroad is for them too. Now their adventure is starting in France and their little ones will be fluent in French in no time!