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Deciding to Migrate

2. Possible Options – “What Next?”

I say we were eager for a big change, but we didn’t immediately know we wanted to move abroad. Our typical MO had been to take big travel adventures at transition points. We’d done the “van around the Southwest for 5 months” adventure and the “big trip around the world for 10 months” adventure. As we saw our goal approaching, we instinctively began tossing around the continents and countries we hadn’t seen yet mixed with the places we have felt we really needed to go back to for extended visits. We aren’t ones to say “been there, done that,” but even so nothing was seeming big enough. In truth, we wouldn’t have the savings to do another Big Trip, and this was the start of a whole new stage of our life. A trip would be fun, but it wasn’t really the way to embark on a new beginning.

Our next logical shift, then, was to consider volunteering or working abroad. We didn’t need good jobs, just a way to cover expenses, so we had the full range of NGO’s and causes at our disposal. Fritz was also promoting the idea of M getting work opening call centers in India. While perhaps that was an obvious and simple choice, M was keen never to sit in a cubicle ever again.

Over the months we bandied about all the places we could go and the all ways we could get there. We started detailing what we expected of the experience. In addition to avoiding office chairs, we began uncovering a drive to get immersed. To make this big enough, we had to make a commitment and try something really new for an extend time. The list keeps expanding as we ask more questions- What would be the most fun? What personal fears/challenges would we like to conquer? What do we have time for? What can we afford?

Brainstorming is not a linear path, and so we wandered down a few other branches as well. Why not take that time and money and effort and start a bamboo bicycle business? Why not convert photography or writing into piles of cash? Why not try living in a dangerous new part of the US? Why not just live on the beach in Southeast Asia or Latin America for $10/day?

The field is sort of wide open in this phase, and we are really testing against our gut whether one idea sounds better than another. It takes time to digest and process and feel out the various ideas. Eventually we start noticing patterns among the “hot” ideas which we can extract as criteria for the “best” idea.

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This article was written on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 and is filed under Lifestyle. For more articles about: Living Abroad (5)

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