My experience as an expat leaves me with no other choice but to think about how my life and my marriage would have been, if instead of waiting to have children to emigrate, we had left before they were born.
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Like everything in life, every decision we make has its pros and cons. And although I think that it has been wonderful to live with our families my children`s arrival and their first years, I must admit that as soon as I arrived to Barcelona I realized how many trips and places I could have visited before.
Asking to couples who have experienced it, I have found Maria and Iñaki who moved to Madrid a couple of years before having their children. According to her, the experience has been wonderful. She told me that what she remembers the most is the freedom to travel and trying new restaurants at any moment, and all the time.
The importance of silence
It is not always easy to make new friends, or meet new neighbors and neighborhoods at first. But if there is something great about this, it is definitively the possibility of growing at a new cultural level. Meeting people who lives differently to us and also in a different environment can open anyone’s mind.
However, the time to spend alone at the beginning is huge!. Walking alone in silence may help to connect with ourselves, with our thoughts and dreams too. Maybe someday, we may miss those lonely times.
Another benefit of moving to another country is to generate a space for self-knowledge and challenge; therefore, the possibility of reinventing ourselves. In my experience, emigrating gave me “perspective” in every way.
Real people, real business
Living abroad may also help to promote savings. How? Having the experience of living abroad helps to understand the different economies and how to get benefits in each place. For example, knowing where and when to invest; or if it is convenient to ask for bank loans and mortgages or not, or maybe just knowing what kind of businesses and services to offer. Many possibilities that only an experienced eye can see!
A couple of weeks ago I met Bea. She is a newlywed who has just moved to Barcelona with her husband. She is an architect and her husband used to have a carpentry shop in Argentina. They decided to emigrate and set up the same furniture business here.
She considers that the great difference of offering the same product and service in a different country, is mainly the type of consumer and their economic possibilities. While they had the same kind of store in Buenos Aires, the client profile was usually of a person who ordered their own custom-made furniture, while in Barcelona they mainly work for architects and interior designers.
My advice: Although I know that emigrating is not an experience for everyone; I think that doing it, may be the most beautiful stage of our lives!
You know what they say; “If you want to go fast, walk alone; but if you want to go far, go together”
