Are You A 'Runner' Because You Want To Move Abroad?

Howdy, peeps!

Travelling is a topic that is close to my heart (as opposed to all the other ones like my childhood of course), so today, I’m going to be talking about my vagabond years.

Many of you already know this, but in case you’re new here: I’ve travelled a bit. I grew up in Belgium and lived there for 25 years, then fuckadiddled off to backpack my way around Australia for six months. At least that was the plan, because I ended up staying there for four years. I then decided that my life in Australia was too hard (facepalm emoji) and that I wanted to be closer to my family (facepalm with an iron pan emoji), and moved to the UK. After Brexit I moved to Malta, where I accidentally stayed for five years. I’m currently living in Uruguay, and I’m here to stay.

Now why did I leave Belgium in the first place? Well, I was doing a job that had become mindnumbingly boring a little too comfortable and I felt like I needed a change. I was looking for something to make me feel alive, something that would push me out of my comfort zone, so I started looking into singing classes. But, seeing as I loved reading adventure stories as a kid, the thought of travelling kept niggling at the back of my mind.

Unfortunately anxiety was pumped into me from a very young age, which stopped me to do anything too big, too bold and too beautiful for the first 25 years of my life. But after picking myself up following my big crash and burn(out), I guess I must have gotten a little confidence boost. That, plus the fact that I was so incredibly bored with my stable AF life and ‘I wasn’t even dating anyone’, must have pushed me into the arms of a country where everything wants to kill you. But hey, at least I could speak the language! Well, more or less.

This is what I thought was happening at the time. And all of what I just mentioned is true, but there were other things which prompted me to leave, or at least didn’t help me to stay. There was a family in which I felt like it didn’t matter what I did because all the love and care of my mother went to my siblings. There was a beginning eating disorder. But above all there was a profound sadness which chased me like grey clouds do Belgian summers.

So yep, I was ‘bored’. I was also a high-functioning anxious/depressive. I think I could feel on some level that if I’d stay, I would eventually tumble into severe depression and not come out of it. I didn’t just want to go somewhere else. I needed it. I needed to experience a totally different life, away from that suffocating blanket of despair, away from the cold and the grey clouds. I needed to force myself to grow.

Make no mistake: travelling makes AND breaks you. You will be turned inside out. You will experience hardship and heartbreak in ways you didn’t even think possible. And whether or not you end up staying in your new country, you will forever be changed.

Travelling is one of the most important things I have ever done for myself. Therapy is another, but I only ended up in therapy because after years of travelling I was finally ready to accept that I needed help. So at least for me, travelling came first.

Maybe all this makes me a ‘runner’. But I am so incredibly glad that I ran, because I ran towards a better, happier version of myself.

PS 1: If you are looking to change your own life in a big way, you’re always welcome to send me a message or book yourself in for a free coffee chat here.

PS 2: This article was inspired by

The contemplative woodworker

’s last post. You might also want to check out his woodwork creations, they are absolutely gorgeous ❤️

Australian drop bear. Murderous bastards.

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