There is no doubt that leaving the town where you have lived all of your life can sometimes be a frightening endeavor. If the future is beckoning and offering greener pastures elsewhere, however, then it may be time to face up to this fear and make a move anyway.
The first step is to decide whether it is something that you genuinely want to do for yourself. There are lots of people who love traveling and moving around, but equally there are just as many people who are quite happy to stay in the place where they grew up and which they know well. The decision to move should be made by you and you alone, and not by best friends, partners, employers or other family members. You need to have a good hard think about it. Where you are going is also important – if you are a country person and dislike lots of noise and crowds, then relocation to a big city would probably be a very bad idea for you, and the reverse is also true for people who love living in a big city. It is crucial that you make your own decision.
The next step is to decide whether you can afford to leave. You should make certain that you have a job lined up for you where you are planning to go, or at least six months of financial backup to support you and to make sure that you have enough money to get back home if things do not go well. Because moving is very expensive, you also need to decide whether to take all of your possessions with you or leave a lot of it behind. Do you need to rent a moving van or buy a big van yourself? You should check the prices of things in the area you intend to move. How much are the taxes there? What is housing like? Gas, food and entertainment prices also need to be taken into consideration.
Make sure that you promise to stay in touch with friends and family. Social media sites are a great way to stay in touch, and if you have a Skype account you will be able to talk for hours each day and not feel homesick.
It is also very important to try and make your brand new surroundings feel as though that they belong to you as soon as you possibly can. A little restaurant that makes a perfect something or has a lovely little corner that you can read in is one such example, and you can also make it a routine to visit a certain park, path or museum and become very familiar with it as though it was something that belonged to you. This helps you to appreciate the appeal of your new home and stops you from wanting to leave and go back home.
Jon Huser
