Three Things I’ve Learned While Living Abroad

As I prepare to go home to visit for the first time in nearly a year and ten months, it baffles me just how long it really has been.  A lot of time has passed since I’ve seen the infamous Chicago skyline, sunk my teeth into a Chipotle veggie burrito, stepped foot on the ice in full hockey gear, driven a car, and most importantly, seen my friends and family who remain stateside.  I’ve been gone so long, I’ve started to romanticize trips to Target with my family.  Time either moves as slow as an elderly turtle or as fast as the speed of light, but no matter how much time has escaped us, it can feel like it all happened yesterday.
I left Taiwan to become an English teacher, but I’m going to return being taught way more than I’m sure I’ve taught my students outside of what lies in their textbooks.  If you’ve never lived abroad (or even lived on your own), I encourage you to do it.  Or travel to a place you have never been to before, where no one knows your name, and everything around you is brand new.  It will terrify you, excite you, but it will open you up in ways you’d never expect.  These experiences are necessary for us to grow.  The things that I have come to understand while being in Taiwan are things I am not sure I would have come to appreciate to the same extent back home:

1. The people in your life matter.  Whether it be family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, classmates, or partners, the people we associate ourselves with help shape the kind of person we are.  They help us to shape the views we have of the world, our attitudes, our priorities, and our humor.  We really are influenced by the people we choose to be around.  Luckily, coming here has led me to some pretty cool people.  But being away from home has also shown me that no matter how far or how long it’s been, true friendships and the bonds of family can withstand nearly anything.
2. Become a “yes” person, with conditions.  Whenever you’re about to embark on anything seemingly different from what you’ve grown up around, it’s important to be the “yes” person.  If someone invites you to try new food, go do it.  If someone tells you they have a really cool local spot they want to show you in a new city, go see it.  However, if what you’re about to do gives you a really bad feeling in the pit of your stomach and your initial instinct is to run away and do just about anything else, don’t do it.  Have some conditions, and by that I mean to listen to yourself and ask yourself if what you’re about to do is going to help you or hurt you.  If it’s the latter, save yourself the trouble and don’t do it.  It’s okay to say no.  It’s okay to not follow the crowd.  It’s never okay to disrespect yourself just to be liked by the people around you more.
3. Always try to do the right thing, and be selfish when necessary.  Being selfish gets itself a bad rap.  Even as a young kid, whenever someone called me selfish, I would cross my arms and glare at them, feeling utterly insulted.  But, being selfish isn’t a bad thing.  You can care about others and still be selfish with how you use your time and energy.  One thing’s for sure: it’s important not to be a jerk and to always be kind to the people around you.  But you don’t have to give energy or time to anything that makes you feel terrible.  Respect yourself enough to recognize these times, and redirect your attention elsewhere.  When it comes to taking care of people, the most important person we have to take care of is ourselves.

If you share some of these same realizations, share in the comments down below or give this article a like!  If there’s something I missed that you have learned, I’d love to hear that as well.
Living abroad has changed my life, but for the better, without a doubt!  I hope that no matter where you are in the world or your situation, you find time to step out of your comfort zone and discover a little bit more of the world, while also opening up another layer to yourself.