Advice For Someone Thinking About Moving to Thailand
If you are thinking about teaching abroad, the best advice I can give you is just do it. There are 3 types of people in life:
- People who don’t dream of doing big things, and stay inside their bubble their entire lives.
- People who dream of doing amazing things, but never act.
- People who dream of doing extraordinary things, and actually do them.
Sadly only a small percentage of people fall into the 3rd category. I encourage you to join this group. Do not let your own nervousness or other people’s opinions sway you from living your life. I am not going to lie, moving across the world to Thailand by myself is the scariest thing I have ever done. It is also the best decision I have ever made. I am not saying you won’t be scared, I just believe it is good to do things that scare you. I am a full believer in the quote:
“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” -Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
If teaching abroad is something you think about, then take the leap of faith and embrace the opportunity. You will grow so much as a person and have an unbelievable experience. Right now you justifiably feel hesitant, but I challenge you to find one person that has travelled and lived abroad that regrets their decision. I have yet to find one. It isn’t always going to be easy, but I can promise you it will be worth it.
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.” -Anthony Bourdain
Living abroad really does put you through the ringer, but that’s the beauty of it. It challenges you, makes you think, can trick you into thinking you’re alone and then at the end you come out a much stronger and more well rounded person. You get rewarded for the struggles and understand that everything you went through was necessary to make you who you are today.
So I challenge you to take the leap of faith. If you are seriously thinking about living abroad, do it. Be a part of the small percentage that can actually claim that they took advantage of all that life had to offer. Do not hold yourself back because you feel like you should stay in the box that has been created for you and deemed normal. Don’t worry, the box will still be there if you want to return. Just be brave enough to step outside of it and explore, even if it is just for 6 months to a year. Most people question others for living outside of the norm, but it is really just a knee jerk reaction from living inside the tiny square their entire lives.
I learned how to meditate from a Monk, climbed 309 steps to see a temple and view of Chiang Mai, and had a few too many beers to celebrate a new friend’s birthday today….what did you do?
