Why I dropped everything & moved to Spain

Well isn't this a question I receive often ... and it's not a bad question either. Why would someone who has everything going for them in one country, drop everything and move to another to start from zero? This is what I hope to explain to you (and clear up for myself) in this post.

At the time I moved to Spain, Madrid to be specific, I was living in Australia. I had pretty much everything going for me and what I mean by that is I had my Mum & stepdad there, an incredible group of friends (love you guys!), a fantastic job related to my university degree and basically a great future ahead of me. So why on earth would I move!?

It's not easy for me to put into words a coherent answer to this question but I've tried in this post. I've broken down my answer to this question into three reasons and I hope they answer once and for all the burning question; why did I drop everything & move to Spain?

A taste of the "travel life"

While I was living in Australia, I travelled to Europe on a regular basis, mainly to see family and visit a few places while I was there. I loved doing these trips but there was one trip to Madrid for 3 months that you could say changed everything for me. In 2016, I went to Madrid, Spain for 3 months to do au-pair. This was my first real solo trip and the first time I had ever "lived" in another place for so long.

During this trip, I fell in love with Spain and when I say that, I really mean it. It wasn't just the great food and fantastic people and all the things you could do there, it's the feeling I had the entire time I was there, as if I was supposed to be there.

It's not really something I know how to explain right now but all I know is that I just didn't want to leave. Apart from this, obviously living in Europe allows you to travel very easily and quite affordably and that was something very attractive for me.

After returning to Australia, the next few months were all about preparing myself to return to Spain. Since I'm not a complete loose canon, I did have a bit of a plan. I had savings and a plan to find online work and of course the knowledge that if things didn't work out, I could just move back without any issues.

Boredom in my daily life

It might be hard to believe but I actually really liked my job, for most of it anyway. I had a great boss, great colleagues and great opportunities for growth. Quitting had nothing to do with that. The weeks leading up to handing in my resignation, I had a feeling of flatness I didn't really recognise. At the time, work was pretty quiet and I found myself wondering if I was really going to have to be stuck in an office for the rest of my life. After the experience I had just had in Spain, I wasn't ready to accept that.

On top of that, I was being bombarded with "travel life" messages on social media which encouraged people to sometimes quit their jobs, travel somewhere without a plan and just live in the moment. After two further years of personal growth, this just sounds ridiculous to me but at the time, it sounded perfect. There were so many people doing this and creating a digital nomad life where they could travel and work indepedently of their location and my final thoughts on that were; if they can, why can't I?

A cute European boy

As much as I don't like to admit it, a boy might have had something to do with my move to Europe. It's hard to say whether I would have moved if I hadn't met him. I'd like to think so but it's really difficult to say as I already had taken some steps such as quitting my job, a long time before meeting him. Maybe it doesn't really matter but the good thing is, believe it or not we are still together with plans for the future.

Wow, now that I've gotten this down on paper or virtual paper, whatever, things are a lot more clearer. I think there are some other more nuanced reasons as to why I moved which I'd love to share with you in future blog posts. For now, I'd love to hear from you; why did you drop everything and move somewhere else? How did it work out?

Until next time,

Anna