When we told people that we planned to sell everything, give up our careers, retire early and leave the U.S. for a year or more of travel in South America, many people told us that they could never make such a big life change themselves.

During my first two weeks in Colombia, I realized why they could never sell everything, leave their homes and take to the road. Because giving up one life to create another one is hard.

[However, before I continue with my story, a disclaimer is in order. Marc had no difficulties with any of these changes nor with adapting to life in Medellin, Colombia. He hit the ground running and never looked back. I, however, was slower to adapt and was hit hard with culture shock.]

This is the story of Kathy’s first two weeks in Colombia.

In reality, some decisions weren’t hard. It wasn’t hard to decide to sell our house. In the beginning, it wasn’t hard to decide which clothes and personal things to donate to charity.

But, leaving my wedding ring with my sister-in-law for safekeeping (I was afraid of being robbed in South America) was hard. Donating the final pieces of clothing (I kept only the clothes that would fit in two suitcases) and personal things that gave me comfort were hard. And arriving in Colombia, knowing that we were not going back to Minnesota was hard.

I had spent so much energy preparing to move from the U.S. that I didn’t have much time to consider just how different my new surroundings and lifestyle would be. I didn’t realize that changing my life so drastically would be so difficult for me.

It had been easy to handle culture shock when I encountered it on a two-week vacation because I wasn’t trading my culture for another’s. Culture shock, for this trip, was much harder because I was forced to adapt to the culture in Colombia. I thought that I was a non-judgmental person who accepted other ways of doing things, but when I arrived here, I realized that I have very strong preferences about how life should be lived.

In fact, when others told me that they LOVED it here in Medellin, I wasn’t sure why. They explained that the loved the climate, the nice people, the low cost of living, but I didn’t feel the love. I recognized those positive things, but, I thought to myself, I would not have left my home for those things. I would have kept working and tolerated the winters in order to stay in Minneapolis, a city that I knew and loved.

Each day I compared Minneapolis and Medellin, and Minneapolis came out ahead on my mental list. Of course, it was hard to see the good things about Colombia when I kept adding dislikes to my list. Sometimes, living here felt too hard and I thought to myself that I just wanted to go home. Speaking and understanding Spanish was hard and sometimes I wanted to quit trying.

After two weeks I began to accept my surroundings even though I was still uncomfortable here. I encouraged myself to become immersed in the culture; even if this meant trying new foods like tripe (Mondongo is a famous tripe stew in Colombia)! The more I exposed myself to the culture, the more it started to feel familiar. I overcame my desire to hide out in our apartment and decided that if I was going to be living in a foreign country, I had to LIVE. Soon, my confidence returned and I began having a good time.

Occasionally I would be walking down the street in Medellin and I think to myself, “Whoa! Marc and I had the idea to come here and we made it happen!” Knowing the strength of my will (and Marc’s) is an amazing feeling. And now, after three months I am having a great time here and appreciate what the country has to offer.

Of course, I knew that to be happy living in another culture I had to be open to change. But change was scarier than I expected it to be. On the other hand, the idea of settling for the life I had in Minneapolis and becoming stagnate scared me more.  Now, I am experiencing immense personal growth because I am living abroad which was exactly what I was craving. My life now has adventure, novelty, and change and I love it.

Medellin and Colombia weren’t going to change for me, and why should they? The responsibility was on me to adapt; I had to bite my lip, take a deep breath and tolerate the things which irritated me, then make the effort to discover what I did like about the city and country, and fill my free time with those things (and record these experiences on my blog!)

Now, we are ready to take on a new adventure and are planning our move to Ecuador in March. We want to experience life in another county and plan to visit Quito for two weeks and then go to Cuenca, Ecuador to live for three months.  I feel confident that I have overcome my fears and I don’t think I’ll experience culture shock the next time around.