Future Expat: Where are these questions coming from? You or other inquiring minds? The truth is you don’t need to know right now where this opportunity will lead you. It’s understandable and responsible to think ahead, but try not to pressure yourself to have your future all figured out before you’ve even begun this exciting journey. This reminds me of the saying: “You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.”
As long as you remain present and are intentional about how you spend your time, you will walk away with a new perspective and rich life experience that will serve you in whatever comes next. But in order for you to be able to live in the excitement that this new chapter brings, you may need some help navigating the anxiety from the uncertainty about what comes next.
Let’s start by naming your fears and anxieties. One by one. Write them down. Acknowledge them. Sometimes you have to face every fear head-on to minimize its power over you. It may even be helpful to run some worst-case scenario drills. Once you get that out of the way, you can temporarily set those worries aside and start dreaming without any limits that come from fear-based thought patterns.
Ultimately, the decision of whether to stay in Madrid or to return to the United States will be greatly influenced by your mind-set going in. So it’s helpful to start getting clear now about your desires for the life you want to build for yourself. What kind of living situation do you see yourself in for the next two to five years? Are you okay with roommates or would you rather live on your own? How much money do you hope to save a month to support this ideal lifestyle? What would your ideal nightlife and social scene look like? Do you want to be able to travel and experience different cultures and places frequently? Do you have hobbies you enjoy? Any religious or spiritual practices or groups you’d like to be a part of? How do you like to move around in your ideal world? By bike, walking, cars, public transportation?
It’s easy to fantasize about life abroad, but it is important to be realistic about your openness to actually making a home base outside the United States. Is proximity to family a high priority? Are you open to Spanish being your primary language for longer than one year? Do your long-term career goals require U.S. residency? Do you need some connection to the United States via an expat community in order to feel settled? Are you comfortable being a cultural minority?
It can take years to truly understand a new place, but you don’t want to get to the end of your trip without having learned as much as possible about what all Madrid has to offer you. These areas of exploration can help inform how you plan to spend your free time and can serve as conversation starters for building relationships with locals and expats. You don’t want to end up making the “safe choice” to go back home simply because you still have unanswered questions by the end of your trip.
Remember: You are so young! You will make “mistakes” in your 20s. And your 30s. And your 40s. You probably don’t have kids, a spouse or a mortgage, so the stakes are relatively low right now. If you decide to live in Madrid for a while, and you hate it, you can always pivot!
