When I was younger (~18 yo), I always dreamed of leaving my small central European country and moving to the States, Canada, or somewhere in Australia. I couldn't imagine staying at home. It simply wasn't exciting enough and I didn't see my future here.
My buddy and I used to hype ourselves up and talk about our future plans, which country we'd move to, in which ways we'd survive (our brightest idea at the time was driving cabs in Sydney, haha).
A couple of years later we started doing web development and got our first gigs. Now that we had some cash in our hands, we decided to — for a start — move to Berlin.
My buddy moved right away and got a job in local startup. I followed him a month later and had a remote US based client. I arrived in January. It was quite cold, often raining, and all around kind of depressing. I didn't know anyone and lived in a small apartment with a bunch of hippy roommates I didn't vibe with. Since I worked remotely I didn't have any coworkers to hang out with. I ended up renting an overpriced desk in a hipster co-working place where everyone kept to themselves and pretended to work. After a month I started getting depressed and it affected my work, so I bought a one-way ticket and moved back to my home country.
Shortly after moving back, I finally found my flow. I co-created a passion project with another friend (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8547351), started increasing my contracting rates, found higher quality clients, etc. I rented a small apartment in the city centre, hung out with friends and family, and basically loved my life (still do!). When I wanted some excitement and a change of scenery, I would jump on a plane and do a road trip abroad.
My buddy who didn't work remotely stayed in Berlin, made friends with some of his co-workers, expanded his social circle, and all in all had a great time. He then proceeded to get married, moved to San Francisco, worked at a FAANG-like corp, got divorced, and in the end moved back to the home country as well. Not (entirely) because of the divorce, but because he craved real friendship which he couldn't find in SF.
I guess the point of this story is... Being lonely sucks and having friends and family close is important? Yeah.
The main issue, I think, is the fact that I was already fairly successful when I decided to move. I was working remotely and it didn't really matter where I lived. If I moved a couple of years prior the story might have been different: I'd have something to chase.
My buddy and I used to hype ourselves up and talk about our future plans, which country we'd move to, in which ways we'd survive (our brightest idea at the time was driving cabs in Sydney, haha).
A couple of years later we started doing web development and got our first gigs. Now that we had some cash in our hands, we decided to — for a start — move to Berlin.
My buddy moved right away and got a job in local startup. I followed him a month later and had a remote US based client. I arrived in January. It was quite cold, often raining, and all around kind of depressing. I didn't know anyone and lived in a small apartment with a bunch of hippy roommates I didn't vibe with. Since I worked remotely I didn't have any coworkers to hang out with. I ended up renting an overpriced desk in a hipster co-working place where everyone kept to themselves and pretended to work. After a month I started getting depressed and it affected my work, so I bought a one-way ticket and moved back to my home country.
Shortly after moving back, I finally found my flow. I co-created a passion project with another friend (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8547351), started increasing my contracting rates, found higher quality clients, etc. I rented a small apartment in the city centre, hung out with friends and family, and basically loved my life (still do!). When I wanted some excitement and a change of scenery, I would jump on a plane and do a road trip abroad.
My buddy who didn't work remotely stayed in Berlin, made friends with some of his co-workers, expanded his social circle, and all in all had a great time. He then proceeded to get married, moved to San Francisco, worked at a FAANG-like corp, got divorced, and in the end moved back to the home country as well. Not (entirely) because of the divorce, but because he craved real friendship which he couldn't find in SF.
I guess the point of this story is... Being lonely sucks and having friends and family close is important? Yeah.