The decision to move over to Thailand and not live in my home country of the United States wasn't one that I really planned on having happen, let alone for as long as it has lasted. Now I am still dragging my feet to go and do what I know I need to do, which is to move back and get a career in the USA before I become too old to get a jump start on it.
I don't really want a career of the traditional sort, but when you start to look at finances it kind of makes sense to get some discipline and make it happen for a certain amount of time. Then keep your "eyes on the prize" of eventually having enough money to go and live somewhere else in the world that you prefer.
Not everything is great about living overseas in a developing country like this one, but there are a lot of plusses and here are a few of them that I have definitely learned since arriving here.
The world isn't as expensive as you think
This might seem like a North American issue because a lot of Europeans have many countries nearby that they probably already learned this about long ago. In the USA or Canada, everything that we might want to visit is really far away and if it it isn't, it is because it is still in the United States, where it seems almost everything is really expensive.
src
When I first moved here to Thailand, I was initially quite alarmed about how cheap everything is. These are the same products that we have in the USA but for some reason, I'm guessing taxation reasons, everything costs significantly less here. Let's look at something simple like bottle of Coca-Cola. When I left the USA it was quite common to pay upwards of $2 for a 12 or 16oz bottle of Coke at a minimart. When you are in Thailand if you are ever paying more than around 50 cents for a bottle of Coke, you are getting ripped off. The Coke also has real sugar in it over here instead of high-fructose corn syrup and it tastes a lot better.
It isn't just Coke though. It is everything. Electricity, mobile-phone service, internet service, rent, transportation, haircuts, doctors, dentists, any food you can think of outside of luxury goods, all of it costs a fraction of what it costs back in 'Merica.
Therefore, if you really think about it, if you can find a job over here and it pays half of what you could make back in the West, you are probably still coming out on top because your life costs a great deal less just to be alive.
The world is not dangerous
I'll admit that as a naive American who hadn't done very much international travel before moving here, I had the same impression that most people have: That it is very dangerous outside the confines of my own country. This is terribly terribly false.
src
Obviously there are places in the world that are exceptions to this but the idea that you are going to be robbed around every corner once you leave the safety of your home country simply isn't true. If you are an idiot you will get fleeced for sure, but this is true anywhere in the world. You don't have to be constantly on your guard and have a hand in your pocket on a knife at all times but if you just exercise the same caution that you would anywhere in a sensible way I think you are actually far less likely to be the victim of some sort of crime in Thailand and most of the developing world, than you are in the United States. You hear about robberies and shooting and drug wars going on all the time in the USA, it's almost completely unheard of here in Thailand and when it does happen, it is normally one that involves no bloodshed. I don't know why that is, but it simply is really safe here.
From my friends that I know that are working or living elsewhere in the world they have said the same thing about the "dangerous" country that they live in. The world is not a dangerous place. There are dangerous people of course, but they live everywhere. I believe that around 90% of all the people on the planet are good and mostly honest folk, and if you exercise just a tiny bit of caution, it is very easy to avoid the other 10%.
Getting out of your comfort zone helps you grow as a person
Was it a bit scary moving to the other side of the planet where I knew no one and was about to start a job that I had never done before with people that I had only interviewed with on Skype? Absolutely it was. Things were not always hunky-dory either. Things went wrong. Accommodation quality was greatly exaugurated by the brokers and agents, jobs were not what they were promised, people were mean and things were dirty and sometimes even unfriendly. However, all of these obstacles helped me to become a more well-rounded person and helped me to be able to take on adversity in all aspects of life better.
I think that this experience of jumping into the fray and just working my way through it, whatever "it" happened to be at the time, has made me a more valuable person to friends, and probably to potential employers in the future. I think that most people are a lot better than dealing with adversity than they think they are, they have just lived rather sheltered lives and have never even tried the things that seem a bit scary.
It might amaze you to find out that there are so many great places in the world that don't have a Disney World or an Applebee's anywhere nearby. A lot of Americans never discover this, and I think they are really missing out because they won't even try things outside of their comfort zone. Remember, you can always tuck tail and run back home if it doesn't work out for you!
The world has a lot of cool people in it that are not from your home country
Cultural differences are a lot of fun. This is something that I have learned after nearly 40 months of spending most of my time around people that are not from the same country as I was born in. These differences, if you embrace them, can be a real joy. There are times when people are surprised by my own cultural differences and this is fun to exchange. I will say this though: Because of movies and TV a lot of the world is already pretty familiar with American culture or at least what they think American culture is... so don't go thinking that it's going to be some great mystery when you are sharing your love for the NFL. :)
These are just a few of the things I have discovered and they are a major reason why I am having such difficulty to finally bite the bullet and move back "home." I'm sure there are more and I will cherish them for a long time, probably forever. If you have the chance to move overseas at some point in your life, i highly suggest you at least try it.