Everyone has their own reason for going abroad, based on their past and their future dreams. The experience is different for everyone! To really know what it is like to live in another country, you have to do it yourself! If that's not possible for you (yet), you can enjoy the stories of others in the meantime. In What about you? You´ll read every month a story of someone who went abroad. 

we kick off with Noor's story. She moved to Portugal four years ago and found more than just the way to her new home.

´´ In my young adult life, I always thought I had to become someone in order to give satisfaction to my life. I always felt so empty, as if there was something that needed to be filled somewhere inside me. I thought I could fill it up by working hard, not complaining and achieve something. Something, no matter what, because that something had to made me someone.

But if you want to fit yourself into a life where you don't belong, you can achieve anything or everything, that void will never be filled, and you will never become someone, if you don't realize that you already are someone.



I had to learn this the hard way. And that is where my adventure in Lisbon began at the age of 26. Still empty, insecure and terribly afraid. Afraid of everything. Would I make it on my own, would I be able to make friends, would I be able to cope with the work, would I be able to live with roommates, would I be able to survive with half a salary I was used to but most of all would I be able to find my way and not always be lost? Which is very funny looking back now because I was already totally lost.

When I shared this with my best friend who sometimes knows me better than I know myself, she just said: `No0rt if you get lost you just keep looking until you find the way´. And I did.

Through the burning sun, in small alleys, walking up and down the hills of Lisbon, taking the metro and getting off the wrong stop, in the dark side of the morning, in the pub, in the club, on the street, on the beach, in making friends, at work, in love, everywhere I found the way. My way.

This is not to say that moving to Lisbon is the only right route. That the tranquillo lifestyle, the coffee for 60 cents in the sun on the terrace, or the port and sangria are a sacred formula for success. That because Lisbon is for me the most beautiful city in the world, with its beautiful architecture, art and open-minded people with the most fantastic stories, does not mean that this is a given. It just means that the cliché turns out to be true. For me, at least. That if you are not happy, it could be that you need to change something.

If you came across this story, then it could be that you are thinking about taking the step to move abroad. If you are like me, and you are hesitating because you think it scary, then I can only say;  get over that fear! And if you can't, do it while you are scared. ´´

- Noor