What I learned from moving 155 miles away after a decade

155 miles away might be a short distance for someone, but to me that distance is pretty significant. Where I am from, that 155 miles away translates as moving to another culture, another language, another environment, and becoming a stranger in a different land. For almost 10 years, I started life in another environment and culture. I spent my last teenage days and early 20’s surviving in this place. As a background though, I grew up pretty spoiled and never really had to lift a finger. Everything I did growing up was voluntarily but when I moved on my own, life became a survival I had to learn the hard way.

By the hard way, I really meant it.

A lot has happened in the last decade and just a few days ago, feeling sleepless, I decided to book a one -way ticket to go back to my apartment and close it for good. For someone who has been a digital nomad, this apartment should have been closed a long time ago but I kept on dragging and dragging because it was still my safe haven. Whenever life went awry, I would hide from the world, right inside my apartment, isolating myself from the world. Lately, I have nothing to hide and things that I always feared of are being so insignificant. Even if I need a place to hide when I am tired of life's humdrum, I get to pick and choose a country without worrying about a long term rent commitment.

Having to call a place home is something new to me but if that would mean, I would not pay rent ever, why not? I only got into my senses that night even after a few years listening to people telling me I should just close the apartment. Afterall, I don’t spend a lot of time there and in a year, I only live there for 3-4 months at max.

While cleaning up the space, I realized a decade is pretty long. I glanced through my stuff and the first lesson I learned was, never accumulate too much stuff & Being attached to it. As someone who considers themselves a minimalist, I don’t think I am minimal at all. There were a bunch of stuff that I probably didn’t need that I bought just because it was trendy and on sale. I definitely regretted it.

I rented the place without any furniture and I bought everything from scratch, one by one. I bought them with my hard earned money only to not use them full time. One of the reasons I also kept dragging was because I got too attached with all the stuff that had so many memories. In the end though, I did give some of them away and only shipped furniture that can be shipped in a box.

I went through so much character development in this place. When I first moved in, I didn’t know how to do laundry, how to cook, how to go to the dentist, how to file a police report, and all the things that I only came to know because I lived on my own. I had my worst moment here as well where I just couldn’t see the meaning of life. In the end, I came through it. Maybe life doesn’t need a fancy meaning & life can be suck, but we gotta survive. That’s my 2nd lesson from this place.

Perhaps, it’s me growing old but I came to realize, my family matters a lot & I have a lot of people that care about me. It’s funny because I was the one isolating myself while in reality, my friends and family were all there, just waiting for me to come out of my life crisis. I came out of it and spending time with my family & friends has been a lot more enjoyable and fun.

Family is everywhere and it doesn’t have to be blood related. That is my 3rd lesson from moving miles away from my actual family. I would say, I have a pretty great relationship with my landlord and even their extended family. I heard a lot of horror stories about the tenant-landlord relationship but mine was nothing but excellent. I consider them as a family and they have children that I even watched them growing up. I certainly feel extremely sad about moving from the place but I know, if I ever visit once in a while, they would still be accepting of me. The family has been super tolerant towards me & it has been a great experience living with them.

Being comfortable with the uncomfortable. That is my 4th lesson. Have you ever been in so much pain without anybody helping you? most wouldn’t and I experienced it a few times while living in this place. I am bad at asking for help and most of the time, even when I am almost dying, I have to go to hospital by myself. One of my memorable experiences was going to the hospital at 3 AM in so much pain by myself only to find out I was short on money while trying to pay the bills. I called up my family and Ray, but they didn’t pick it up. Long story short, it was resolved but I had to wait a few hours before anybody woke up. Strangely, I didn’t panic at the time, just calm and collected, swallowing my embarrassment.

Money is everywhere. That is my 5th lesson. One thing I learned about money and wealth is that they are everywhere. A person can start with 0 connection and rose to the top. Obviously, the way isn’t easy but living in another province without much of connection, I learned that making money is possible. I had a dropshipping business, import-export business, and all the entrepreneurship endeavors in this place despite starting 0 in terms of connection. Now, that I am moving back home again, I believe it is the same thing. In fact, if I am moving back home is another privilege because I didn’t start with 0 connections, I have connections.

Last but not least, I learned so much about the idea of self-limiting beliefs. From this place, I learned bout opening up myself and mind to new possibilities and ideas. I am not confined with geographical locations. I will always be trying new things and even if I end up failing, that’s pretty okay too. I can start all over again and fix what didn’t work. Sometimes, it’s OK to take some breaks and start again.