Overcome the Fear of the Unknown: 8 Reasons to Brave Traveling Abroad

▲The fear of the unknown journey is real, but it is followed by an exciting sense of anticipation, excitement, and a thirst for something new in pursuit of a fresh environment (Image / Sourced fromWikipedia)

By s菩?/p>

If one day you make the decision to move abroad, having such a prospect can be frightening—even those fearless explorers who roam the world might feel afraid, because everyone is scared of the unknown. But set that aside, and what follows is an exhilarating sense of anticipation, excitement, and a thirst for something new in pursuit of a fresh environment.

If you get the chance to live abroad, take it in stride. It will greatly change your original life. Even if it’s not a pleasant experience, some irreversible chemical change will still occur somewhere deep within you, makingSophie TurtoninThe Huffington Posttell you the reasons why:

1. Suddenly, you can do whatever you want, with no one watching over you or making demands, but you have to rely on yourself—no one will offer help proactively. You’ll learn skills to handle all kinds of situations, and these accumulated experiences will stay with you for life, from interpersonal relationships to career development, finding your true self amid self-doubt.

2. Challenge preconceived notions. Actually, we all have this ability, but usually, whether we agree with a certain culture or not, we just live within it. Abroad, it’s completely different—you can view things from a brand-new perspective. Maybe you don’t fully understand what you see and hear, but in the end, you learn humility, realizing there’s always more you don’t know enough about to judge other cultures. And perhaps this opportunity will make you even more eager to explore the world.

3. Understanding a new culture will amaze you with its richness—you’ll realize you were just a frog at the bottom of a well, seeing only the tip of the iceberg. You’ll discover so many mysterious and wonderful things around you. Use this chance to examine your own inherent culture from a different angle. Friends who live abroad or travel frequently can view their home country more realistically and rationally. Try talking to them more—you might gain a lot of valuable insights.

4. Patience. In many countries, there’s no concept of queuing. You might wait forever for your food at a restaurant, and in some places, waiting leads to disappointing results. Hold back the tears—this is your first lesson in learning patience.

5. You’ll keep getting lost, finding your way, then getting lost again. This cycle will repeat over and over. You’ll come to cherish every mistake as a learning experience—unless you’re rushing to an important meeting, in which case you’ll probably be tempted to scream in frustration.

6. You’ll fall in love with a type of food, a city, a culture, a building, a feeling. Of course, you’ll also hate plenty of things. It will be an experience filled with all kinds of extreme and complex emotions.

7. Every day is a new adventure. You’ll never know what will happen next. The thought “Really? Did that just happen?” will cross your mind countless times, simply because you’re no longer in Taiwan—everything will be vastly different. Maybe you can use this chance to get creative with new ideas or go home and share the funny stories with your friends.

8. You’ll become a more interesting person than others. Maybe people won’t be that interested in your travel stories from around the world, but you probably won’t care—because you’ve already conquered the world.