Being Foreign - The Others

"Nowadays, you might rather say that the more you know of other countries, the more inclusive of all humanity your values will become"

My friend Digs, to whom I hadn't recconnected in a while taught me an important lesson in social anthropology today... he taught me that life is full of choices... you can't live in the past or in the future... and to decide how you want to live, you need to start making cost / benefit decisions, since you can't have it all (Can you?)

I truly reccommend to read this article from the Economist, it is about what it takes to be an expat, to choose to have the life of a foreigner, whether a threadbare student, an overworked manager or a trailing spouse... but more than just explaining the differences between living as a foreigner or as a local, the article distinguishes between the decisions you need to make to be happy with the status you have chose for yourself...

For example, some give up a wealthy senior management position for having a peaceful life and be able to see their children grow up and raise them theirselves... other choose to live abroad and full their lives of experiences and give up having the same good old friends and fridays of wings and beer... and it doesn't matter which kind of life you choose... you have to make the best of it because at the end, the decision you made was well worth it... even if it was because one of your parents needed someone to take care of them or if "life" made plans for you that you were probably not ready for...

Doesn't matter how it was... or why you took the decision you took... don't look back... make the best of it now.