Start before you’re ready

Honestly, I don’t know what I’m doing. But I’ve learned that not knowing is exactly where growth begins.

For years, I have had the idea of creating an outlet to share my experiences and lessons in hopes of making the next person’s life easier. I would say that I am too busy, not knowledgeable enough yet, or that my story wasn’t “special”. I sat on this plan, too scared to tell anyone about it out of fear that if I told someone, I wouldn’t follow through, or worse, that I would be judged. In reality, telling friends and family about my goals is why I ultimately decided to take action. Having a support system to keep me motivated and accountable is the reason I decided to start.

Being the perfectionist that I am, I never felt “ready” enough. But “ready” was never even something that I could articulate. Instead of starting, I would overwhelm myself thinking of all of the elements that go into making this dream a reality; designing the website, what my message would be, how I would plan each post, and all of the other minor details. And keep in mind—I’ve never done this before. I recognize that this will be a lot of learning on the fly and making mistakes as I go. All of this to say, I realized that my fear of never starting outweighed my fear of failing.

So here I am—starting. To anyone who has dreams, remember that life is too short to not try something new and scary. Take growth over comfort every day. Follow that dream, not with the intention of being perfect in execution, but with the intention of learning. I hope that this blog will not only serve as a resource for people looking to move or study abroad but also as an example of what can be accomplished when you take the leap.

I’ll finish this post with a tangential story of a time when I quite literally took a leap of faith and it turned out to be the best experience of my life. It was the summer of 2023 and I was in Crete, Greece with a friend and her family. We took a trip to a bungee jumping spot in the mountains. My friend and her aunt’s partner were planning on bungee jumping 200 meters off a bridge into a ravine. I remember going into it with no intention of jumping. In fact, I wore a dress and sandals to eliminate the possibility of me jumping. But when I saw how safe and exhilarating it was, I decided to follow suit and borrow clothes from people so I could be dressed properly to jump. You know that saying, “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you too ?”. Yes, actually I would (sorry mom). I was standing on the edge all strapped in when they started the countdown. While everyone was counting down from three, I took many deep breaths to calm my shaking hands and I refused to look down. At one, I hesitated out of fear. Everyone shouted encouragement at me, saying “You can do this !” and “Imagine how great it’ll feel when you overcome your fears !”. I knew they were right, so we restarted the count after a few more deep breaths and a short pep talk. Three… two… one. I jumped. Instantly, I went into panic feeling myself free fall for the first time in my life, but all I could do was keep my body firm and my eyes up to the sky. Eventually, the cable caught me and I bounced up, going into another free fall. I let my body go and embraced each bounce until I was swinging back and forth under the bridge.

When they pulled me up and I had both feet on solid ground again, I felt reborn. Adrenaline was coursing through my veins and this sense of euphoria and empowerment washed over me. To take the leap of faith, even when I was so overcome with fear, showed me that I can do hard things. To say that I felt unstoppable is an understatement. Moral of the story: whenever I am doing something scary, I think back to this leap of faith and how empowered I felt for doing the damn thing. Growth doesn’t come from staying safe. It comes from saying yes, even when you’re shaking.

I’m not claiming to have all the answers—but I’m showing up anyway. I’m growing, learning, leaping, and living out loud. Every misstep is a step forward, a small win in the grand scheme of becoming who I want to be. If you’re waiting to feel ready, maybe this is your sign: growth begins the moment you start.

With love,

Delaney