Changing Your Perspective While Living Abroad

By: Alex Smith

Before going abroad, we have such specific expectations and visualizations about it, and, we can’t encapsulate any of it until we’ve lived there because the way we see things is through a different lens after living in another country. The smallest things change our perspective most – the things we least expect, as cliché as it sounds.

The biggest impact on me thus far has been my dear friend Santi, an owner of a bar that I decided to walk into in my first week in Spain, with an initial intention of practicing my Spanish conversation skills with a local, one on one. I started going there alone at least 3 times a week, and now, 10 weeks into my experience, Santi has taken me out to lunch, tapas, or walking around the city a few times. I have such new perspectives about limitations to friendships, different types of connections, and hospitability. There are so many preconceptions and traditional ways of life in the US, and I have realized they don’t exist as much here in Spain. 

Another obvious perspective change has been my experience living with a host family. The adjustment was big, to live in a way that Spaniards live, eat when and what they eat, and converse about topics that are different from what I’m used to at my family’s dinner table in the states. I’ve learned to embrace the small uncomfortable frustrations; I’ve realized that by living exactly how they do, it will make me a more flexible person in general and learn to enjoy the fact that I am not only living in Spain, but I am also living as a Spaniard. 

I have tried my best (although impossible to completely do so) to distance myself from Americans, as they carry the same customs, values and obviously language as I’m used to at home, so not much self-growth comes from spending my time with them. The more you spend time with locals, the more perspectives you’re going to gain. 

One more thing I’ve learned to embrace is that it’s okay to have a change in heart of your desired career in the future. This is so normal, because as our perspectives change about the world, our previous plans can naturally shift because we’ve simply seen more of the world through a separate lens. Just embrace any questioning and hesitation as one step closer to doing what you dream of. 

Alex Smith

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