How I Threw Everything Behind Me and Moved Out to Another Country Alone

Never in my life did I ever think that one day I would leave my home country, neither for studies nor for work. Unfortunately, life seems to happen and throws you somewhere else on this planet, somewhere which is not home, and you somehow need to adapt to that before it kills you.

I was 17 years old when I moved from the city back to a village-like area with my family where we were originally from. Living in the city while being adapted to its lifestyle and bombastic night lights makes it really hard to get used to the the village lifestyles.

Something was always missing. The rides in the elegant Beirut streets to my old school, my friends, my area, and my favorite lively spots. One thing I could confirm is that I was never able to live in the village, I was only eating and respirating oxygen to live physically, but actually dead inside.

It was time for college, and I had to leave the environment I was in as soon as possible, and the only right option was to travel after taking a gap year because I just couldn’t do it. It felt like a trap, I was never feeling myself, I was hand-tied, I thought I could never get out of this and reach my actual goals and dreams.

Istanbul felt like the perfect getaway. I’ve always been in love with it but I never thought I would ever live here. I knew a good chunk of the language, it’s not so far away, and not so expensive in contrast with other countries.

After all the bad experiences I went through in the past 2 years, I was able to move out at 19, this time alone. It felt like everything was so fast happening, I couldn’t grasp what was going on until I was in Istanbul’s huge airport.

Leaving my family was hard. Very hard in fact. But I had to solely focus on building a better future for them, before it being for me. I an the oldest sibling and I wanted to make my parents proud. It’s gonna take time and big efforts, but I am up for a good challenge.

After taking a huge breath, it was time to get thrown into a world of responsibilities and hard work. I had to fix my college papers and residence permit,adapt to Istanbul’s transportation, and also find a good apartment to turn into my new home. A friend of mine from grade 5 recently moved to Turkey so I actually had her in a moving, human form of home.

It was hard. But I loved every single part of it, and I would do it all over again. Im a fast learner so it was easy to adapt but finding a good place to stay was bombarding especially now with the currency fluctuations in Turkey.

But Istanbul, with its luminous lights and magical air, was easily able to top the highest ranks in my heart. Istanbul is that wise, hyper little kid that you see in family gatherings and shocks you with the amount of energy that they have to serve (and punish) the family with. Instead it had no punishments. Just good vibes. Magical ones.

Here I am now, I understood the actual meaning of home and the importance of it, responsibilities, time-management, communication with multifarious types of people and nationalities. I have an amazing roommate and we live in a cute little apartment, cook meals together, talk about our days, plan them, and encourage each other all the time since we have the same YouTube interests that is actually also our job.

And I would do it ALL over again. I still have a lot to experience anyway. I always loved living alone, I was always that one kid that would rather sit alone study or think about my next beneficial step that is going to get me closer to my goals. A day-dreamer. I can do that now. This time, I am eating, respirating oxygen, and actually, living.