Celeste Caceu

The Grass Is Always Greener on the Other Side

"Your life looks like a dream, I'm so jealous, I wish I could be where you are so badly" are all things that I hear from people in my Instagram DMs regularly. I live in Paris, where I have been living for six months now. It has been amazing, but it has also been some of the hardest months of my life. I can promise you that anyone, ANYONE, who you see on social media posting envy-worthy photos of croissants and cafés at a cute Parisian cafe, or posing on a beach in Barcelona with a plate of tapas and a huge smile, is not living life like that at every moment. Living somewhere far from home is hard, it pushes you out of your comfort zone. Not being fluent in whichever language is spoken in your chosen country makes thoughtless daily tasks a new challenge. It's exhausting, thinking over exactly what words you are going to say just to order something. Feeling embarrassed, guilty even, for not knowing the language fluently. Feeling incompetent. Feeling lonely, because you can only be friends with people who speak your language, and that's if you can find them, which can sometimes be hard. You will experience discomfort that you will have likely never experienced, or maybe even considered, in your home country.