10 KEY Reasons I Left The United States (and might never return)
hey guys welcome back to the channel adventure elliott here from malaga spain and you know i haven't uploaded in a while and that's it's because i've been doing a lot of reflection lately a lot of thinking about my last two and a half years living here in spain through the pandemic and all man my life has changed a lot for the better and so i thought that i would come up with a list of 10 really well thought out reasons as to why i as a us citizen immigrated from the united states to spain and why these reasons might resonate with you watching and why this might be useful to people thinking of leaving the united states to move to another continent like central or south america or europe and so join me on a walk to the beautiful city of malaga as i give you guys 10 reasons that i left the united states and why i might never go back at least permanently that is we'll see i don't want to say never because never say never she says because i'm not one of those people that want to turn in my u.s passport which is i think becoming more popular these days if you guys watch the channel nomad capitalist you know what i'm talking about but i'm not one of those guys i'm always going to value my u.s citizenship and at the same time value the opportunities that our passport gives us to have other opportunities abroad such as living and traveling throughout the world depending on your situation so let's go okay so let's get started with number 10 and that is that's healthcare right healthcare a lot of people would put this way up on the list like number one but i'm 28 years old so i haven't had any scares yet knock on wood but it's one of those things that i just go wow i listen to stories back home from family and friends of things that have happened with healthcare and i never had any situation where i had to take an ambulance or had to go to the hospital emergency room in my life i'm really lucky that way so here if you pay into the system if you are a resident on a certain type of visa residency or you're a citizen you pay taxes and you get complete full coverage health care you're never gonna have to pay a thousand euros to get emergency room visit or more than that um and additionally if you decide to go the private route i have a friend in madrid who's 60 years old and i think he pays around 120 euros per month for full coverage now i'm not an expert on health insurance but we all know the situation in the united states is is horrible uh i wouldn't wish anybody to be financially ruined by something like a broken leg or you know a freak accident that you hear about all the time which is just a tragedy quite frankly and that just doesn't happen here in europe it doesn't happen even in latin america in latin america you can pay out of pocket and get medical care there for you know significantly more cheaper that's why there's a thing such as medical tourism but enough about that let's go on to reason number nine all right the ninth reason thinking back why i left the us is because i wanted to become more of a minimalist which i have done and it's probably one of the most freeing relaxing stress-free feelings you can have uh in fact you know when i sold my car i was living in milwaukee wisconsin before i sold my car i sold a lot of my belongings i threw a lot of stuff out and i haven't looked back and i don't think i'll ever try to go back to that situation where you just keep accumulating materials that really don't mean anything you know of course many of our things can be stored online now it's always good to have a few sentimental things but really once you get past that connection to things that don't mean anything you can really move forward stress-free in your life and so minimalism is number nine on the list the eighth reason uh i decided to move abroad in particular spain was to gain a skill in in this case the particular skill uh was to learn spanish well to improve my spanish and i've definitely improved it a ton you definitely need you know more than like six months in a country immersed to be able to get to a level where you really you know can get what you want out of the language and in my case i wanted to be able to gain the skill of speaking spanish writing spanish so that i could move back to the united states and use it in a job setting and at this point i'm definitely at that level um i use it in my job now but this could be applied to anything it doesn't have to be a language it could be something like all right i have to become a digital mat to survive what skills do i need to learn in order to survive because this isn't your country that you're moving to you have to learn and have a means to survive you're not going to be able to get a job over a local especially without a work permit and so how are you gonna provide value and earn money so you're gonna be forced to learn a skill and this was originally like the top reason i chose to move to spain was to be here for a year learn the language i mean actually improve the language i already knew spanish a little bit and so yeah this is a big reason and in terms of learning a skill you know i couldn't improve my spanish to the level it is by living in wisconsin i could practice online with some friends i had in school but you just you just can't take the next step with something it's like it's like you want to become a plumber or a welder but you're not going to weld to to be do that how are you supposed to learn you can't learn by the books you have to come put yourself in the situation find yourself in difficult situations and see what happens and if you progress well great for you and if not you got to find a different way so learning a skill is one of the reasons i came here and you know i could have went to mexico central and south america to do this as well even in united states city but it wouldn't be the same and also if you go to a country in south or central america what are your work options you're more limited than if you find a way to come to europe or to spain and i'll touch on that later so the seventh reason is climate well spain is a mediterranean climate and for those who move to places like mexico or colombia it's obvious that the climate is better year-round than most of the united states you know i'm from wisconsin i got sick of the the winters that just yeah the winters were rough you guys all know what northern united states is like and you know well you could say well why don't you move to florida or texas or california and the cost of living obviously is much too high there and there's other things that many people there's other reasons that one would not want to go to florida for for example so spain central and south america obviously climate is super important for many people who leave the united states and i mean here in spain here in the southern coast of del sol we're in malaga spain the climate is phenomenal year round we do get some cold days you know like lows of 50 45 madrid is a lot colder actually i lived there for two years but in general the climate is significantly better i can be outdoors all year round get exercise go to the beach even if i'm not gonna swim and just kind of enjoy the well-rounded climate that we have here in spain and the same can be said if you were in central or south america which is another place that i would like to live with the spanish that is so reason number six you guys is well when you live abroad and you have access to the whole continent of europe it's kind of like one big perpetual travel experience and you live here but you feel like you're sort of on vacation and of course that novelty eventually wears off but even after two and a half years i've traveled all around spain you can see my channel i have hundreds of videos here also in other countries and you know just like that non-stop wonder lost adventure exploration just never goes away and you know i got that as a kid taking road trips to florida and more importantly my first trip out of the u.s was in 2013 backpacking in mexico just a young little 18 year old didn't know what i was doing but it really opened my eyes and i found out that man this ordinary life of never leaving the place you're born is just not for me and so one very important reason of living abroad is everything's a new experience it's just a non-stop travel experience that never ends the novelty might wear off but it hasn't so far for me and if it does i'm still learning new things i'm still experiencing new things learning new skills and not everybody's going to have that same experience but at least for me that's how it's gone alright so the fifth reason um maybe might not apply to latin america but it definitely applies to here in europe and in particular spain and that is the infrastructure the walkability the the way that cities are made the public transport is just top-notch everything is taken care of you see people are out walking enjoying their lives there's restaurants to eat the cities are designed for you to go out explore to walk to be in contact with humans you know this could be like the number one reason but for me it's number five which tells you something so when i go back to the united states i was in milwaukee minneapolis which quite frankly both are really nice cities i like them eau claire wisconsin as well but how can you have a downtown city like milwaukee wisconsin and the streets are completely empty i mean everything is so spread out there's not these bike paths everywhere and there's not people out socializing even in the summer i mean yes there are but not to this level that if you were to come to europe you would see what the social life and social scene is like here as a result of the infrastructure that really just puts the u.s to shame at least from a european standpoint now latin america you're going to run into infrastructure problems you're still going to have okay public transport but the social scene in the united states sorry the social scene in latin america is much better because even the cities there are more built and designed for the street life to happen however they obviously don't do a great job maintaining their roads you know for many many reasons that we're not going to get into this video but yeah just needless to say the infrastructure here in the country of spain and the most of europe is i mean mind-blowing it's really mind-blowing and i didn't even think of it until i moved here and i was just like wow a huge eye-opener for me the infrastructure i want to take a moment to mention my good friend colin up in ireland who sends me his homemade and organic beard products like beard oil beard balm and beard butter now i use these products on a daily basis and they really do help me with maintaining a soft moisturize and clean beard one of the cool things is the products contain natural ingredients like peppermint tea tree and lavender which just gives it a natural touch that has really grown on me as i continue to use it you can check out his website by clicking on the link in the description of all my videos all right back to the video the fourth reason i decided to immigrate was well check this out real quick roman theater and morrish runes the fourth reason is social life now what you see here with the pedestrians is related to the infrastructure related to the culture but this is you guys this is every day this is how life is here every day and not just in a touristic city even in small towns in spain and it's the same way in most of central and south america and i think southeast asia but the social life encourages people to go out on the street to live life on the street to form relationships go play outside as a kid play sports go play football in the lot soccer that is whatever sport you might like basketball that is the culture here and many other places that doesn't exist in the suburbian dystopia that quite frankly is the united states the most majority of the united states my dad used to tell me elliot i'm from a small town in wisconsin go play outside go find some kids on the block when i was a kid in duluth minnesota i would play baseball in the in the back street well i'm sorry that doesn't exist in the united states maybe in a few cities it does but being able to go outside and go find some kids on the block to play baseball like the movie sandlot just not it's not how it works anymore but i can tell you for sure here in 2022 what you see here is real and there's kids that go out to the alleyway their parents let them go out alone and they play sports they make friends they hang out at the local square the local plaza the social life here is immensely better and it's just like an eye-opener for me and for anyone that visits and you'll notice that if you go to places like mexico costa rica colombia the same thing the social life the street the street life is amazing and on that note of the social scene we have the food culture which is to eat outdoors here year round and not just in the southern coast of spain but the majority of the country and mediterranean and so the eating out social aspect is another really fun part about living here you can see the tables everywhere now between 2 and 3 p.m which is the lunch hour here there's way more people now it's like uh almost 5 p.m so
we're getting into siesta time and another aspect of the social scene and social culture here is hayah she's probably from the uk i know that's the uk thing um is the dating scene the dating life and i can tell you from first-hand experience that back when i was single when i first moved here the first year my dating life in madrid was amazing with it being like an international city of course speaking spanish helps whether you go here to spain central or south america that will be a game changer um but the dating life is great there's so many cool date ideas there's lots of people there's just so many people that are looking to date and have a good time and i really think one of the things that makes dating life good here in spain is people's priorities and where they are and it just seemed like more natural to me here in europe um but that's my experience but i know that i have friends who have moved to centrum south america and they said the same thing the dating life there is night and day better than in the united states so that's obviously very important and you know i met my long-term girlfriend here we're in a a good healthy and happy relationship of over two years now and it's been great it's been great so um yeah if you come to move abroad you just might meet the love of your life i also want to mention that i literally met my girlfriend at the grocery store in the supermarket just by being polite and friendly and speaking to her and i mean it's really as simple as that take care of yourself you can meet people in public you know at the mall out on the street in the park whatever just be friendly and yeah that's just another element of the social life no online dating i didn't have to do it and it's quite frankly one of the best things that's ever happened to me in my life all right the third reason and this is one of the top reasons and that is of course the cost of living here and the spending cycle so as you guys know there's a big problem with cost of living being ridiculously high and it's only going up every month in the united states it's also going up here and around the world but more importantly is that spending cycle in the united states and what i mean is just to survive you know you got to have a car things cost more it's so easy to get caught in that debt trap whether it be from school whether it be from the priorities that people have and using credit to credit to support those uh habits everything just seems to cost money and you try to budget and save money but it's hard in the united states and so what happens is you become stuck in a job where you are just working and working and working and you're missing out on the things that you see in this video that are part of this list of 10 reasons as to why i immigrated such as social life and that debt trap that cycle of spending is just it just takes you and it's just so hard to get out of it because the lifestyle there just perpetuates that spending cycle i remember i was back in the u.s in milwaukee you know we go out to breakfast with my friend and a breakfast like a waffle some eggs a coffee and orange juice between the two of us it cost 55 dollars i almost like puked up the food because it was just ridiculously expensive in here i'm going out for breakfast for two or three euros right i mean that's just one example of the spending cycle and here this is related to minimalism i live a more minimalistic lifestyle i don't have a car and so my cost of living rent-wise food-wise habits-wise it's just overall much lower and something else i want to add is that when you're forced to survive because you're on your own you're in a different country you don't have other people to rely on you can't go home to your parents for example well you learn how to budget your money better because yeah you're across across the ocean in a different place so that is a big reason number three cost of living and the spending cycle all right so the second reason is uh actually quite interesting and it's you know sort of a result of being raised and socialized in the united states and our culture in the united states makes this happen and that is simply put individualism what do i mean by that well in the united states um you know we're socialized to have to move out and find our life after we turn 18 and graduate high school um and for some reasons that's good and for some reasons i don't think that is good uh but for example i can tell you here in spain and throughout latin america that's not a thing people live with their parents sometimes until they're in they're 30 years old and they get married and that's not a stretch but what that does in the united states is that really challenges you to figure your life out fast sometimes too fast but it does challenge you to you know uh find what you have to do in life and and quite frankly just survive you know but on the other hand that enables me to not have fear to do what i'm doing to take the leap of faith and to move abroad um whereas in some places if you have the commodities of living with your parents not having to pay rent or food that life might be a little bit too easy um and so i see it as both good and bad and i see this individualism as a reason that i'm here and you know i'm here i took the leap of faith because being raised in the united states teaches you that and it's really not that much different than saying hey mom dad i graduated college i got a job in new york i'm moving to new york city i'm moving to la you know i'm gonna go chase my dreams that is what the united states does to us and so it is good but you know on the other hand it can lead to a lot of problems it can lead to loneliness and depression uh a feeling of failure among many young people especially now in the united states we have this thing called nihilism and that is a big problem with the younger generations in the united states and i don't think that baby boomers would understand that so anyways individualism is definitely a reason as to why i'm here living my life in this beautiful city and by the way before this i lived in madrid for for two years and i've been here for six months with my girlfriend now finally we're at number one i deem this as the most important reason and most kind of profound reason and that is figuring your life out um knowing what you want and so basically moving abroad as a younger person or an older person is an experiment right it's about living in the moment it's about seizing the opportunity enjoying life on a daily basis because oftentimes when you get caught in the rat race the spending cycle the work and labor force in the united states you often forget those things and years pass you by you miss out on great opportunities and skills that you could have learned and experiences that when you go to your grave you know that's what you carry with you so finding my life uh has been a lot easier and figuring out what i like what i don't like as a result of moving here and you know i started to have those ideas back when i first started traveling abroad in 2013 as a freshman in college throughout my college career and after college i was traveling to columbia to costa rica back and forth before i decided before finally i decided hey guys i'm gonna come to spain because i found a teaching program called auxiliares uh the english conversation assistance and that's how i'm here i'm on a student visa i earn money on a monthly basis not a lot you guys can look it up online uh but i supplement that with youtube income you know my life has changed a lot here i started this channel because i wanted to share things like this with you guys as a result of living in spain and having these profound life experiences and now you know if i i question what is my future i learn to take it more in stride and not have these existential crises that a lot of young people have um and you know i found a wonderful girlfriend here i've made connections i've immensely improved my spanish i figured out like what is the meaning of life for me and what makes me happy what doesn't make me happy and in the united states that was just a cloudy uh notion i just didn't i didn't know what i wanted to do in the united states and you know we still don't know everything we want to do you know some people never figure it out but i definitely have a better idea and that's my story perhaps many of you resonate with that same thing uh in different circumstances you know different countries i know people who moved to colombia i know people can move to mexico young folk who are digital nomadic and they like it uh you know but if some of them are lonely as well so it's just really um a matter of perspective based on individual basis for each and every person so if you guys like this video please like leave me comments with questions i want to get to you guys and answer everything i can and thanks for watching so i'll see you guys in another video let me know what other things you would like to know based off of this video and so i'll see you guys in the next video adventure elliott peacey note from sunny beautiful warm mediterranean malaga spain hasta luego
2022-05-02 17:27