How to Move Overseas Like a Champion

For many people making any kind of change is hard. Even implementing some small change, like going for a short walk every morning, seems daunting and impossible, let alone something as life-impacting as moving abroad. People often ask me, how? How do you move halfway across the world?

I would love to say that it is because I am super brave or know the secret to life, or something impressive like that. Unfortunately, I am not a particularly brave person. In fact, I spend most of my time second guessing my decisions and worrying about what to do. Even now as I sit on the back porch of my mother’s house writing this, I wonder if it was a good idea to quit my job, move back home, and commit to spending the next two years of my life and a substantial amount of money trying to get a masters degree in something that I have trouble explaining. But as I mentioned in a previous blog, at some point I came to the conclusion that doing something is better than doing nothing, and forced myself to make a decision.

And really, making the decision is more than half of the battle. After you get the ball rolling towards moving and book your plane ticket, you kind of just get caught up in it all. You probably couldn’t stop it even if you wanted to, especially not after you announce your departure to your colleagues and friends and they throw you a goodbye party showering you with kind words and gifts. Definitely too late to change your mind then.

After moving from Brisbane to Miyazaki, Miyazaki to Tokyo, and now Tokyo to Brisbane, slowly (I’d like to think) perfecting the process, I have come up with this list which shares the title of this blog, “How to move overseas like a champion.”
  1. Make the decision
  2. Make a plan & to do list
  3. Do nothing until the last minute
  4. Somehow survive the endless goodbye parties
  5. Panic/experience an existential crisis
  6. Throw everything haphazardly into boxes and a suitcase
  7. Lose your keys/wallet/passport or something else that you definitely need (this time it was my apartment key) 
  8. Frantically search for lost items and panic some more
  9. Get drunk the night before your flight ensuring sleep deprivation and hangover
  10. Cry like a baby at the airport and continue crying on the plane
  11. Arrive looking like a zombie 
  12. Spend the next six months to a year wondering if it was the right decision 
And, that’s it really. Pretty simple, right? Over and done before you know it.

For real though, although it seems daunting before you make the decision, and it is a lot of effort and work to make it a reality, if it is something that you want, you just make it happen somehow. You find the courage to tell your boss that you quit. You find the time to empty your apartment. You find the strength to get on the plane even though you’re crying and desperately want to turn around and run back to the comfort of your friends. Whatever power you have inside of you, you grab it with both hands and keep moving one foot in front of the other, because that’s what it takes.































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