6 months later...

It’s now over 6 months since I’ve been living in Brazil. It’s a crazy thought and feeling that the streets which I once walked down feeling hopelessly lost are now what I consider home.

These six months have been a combination of a joy-ride with a horror roller-coaster. What’s terrifying when you’re abroad is that you have the exact same insecurities (and securities) that you had before, except you now you don’t really have someone to hold your hand and call you beautiful. You don’t have your best-friend around the corner to remind you of that hilariously embarrassing incident that happened when you were 11 when you’re feeling low. You remind yourself of that.

Like with everything in life, you can choose to take a deeper reading into things – such is my case. For me Brazil hasn’t just been about ‘la vida louca’ (in-fact, it has probably been everything but since I live the life of a Brazilian, not a tourist!), but it has been a path and road of self-discovery.

Being abroad gives you a crystal-clear perspective and outlook on things since you are taken out of the every-day perspective. Life kindly - and forcefully - gives you an alternative perspective. One that you may not necessarily desire.

I know that these eyes which now look at Brazil are very different to the ones which first saw these grey and simultaneously colourful streets. Every-day in these six months have been a beautiful challenge, both professionally and emotionally/psychologically. 

Living abroad wouldn’t be nearly as amazing and exciting without these challenges because it is at these times – your highest and lowest – that you really have the opportunity to discover who you are, what you stand for and what you value.