u/AnxietyBusy1731

Hello! I’m currently considering my options for moving overseas. I’m already living outside my home country, but lately I’ve been feeling like I desperately need a change of scenery and a completely different environment.

Since English is the only language I speak fluently besides my mother tongue, I’ve narrowed down my options to countries where I could realistically get by with English. I’ve also lived in the US before and absolutely loved it, and I’d honestly love to go back — but as an immigrant, the visa/immigration situation makes it a much less straightforward option.

I work in the creative industry, so I’m not exactly in a high-paying field, which is also something I need to consider. But beyond salary, I’m really looking for a place where **day-to-day life feels exciting and inspiring**.

I love walking around a city, exploring different neighbourhoods, stumbling across cafés/restaurants/shops, going to exhibitions, being around interesting people, hop on a train for a short trip nearby etc. Basically, I want somewhere where I can walk out of my apartment and actually feel like there’s a life happening around me. I’m an introvert but I keep myself busy and exploring😅

Weather isn’t a huge factor for me — I can handle cold/rain/etc. I just really don’t do tropical weather, so that rules out some places.

So, long story short, I’d love to hear from people actually living in the countries I’ve listed below.

How do you find:
**Day-to-day lifestyle & social life**
**Cost of living vs. local salaries**
**Job opportunities, especially in creative/design fields**
**How easy/difficult it is to integrate as a foreigner**
**City life, culture, things to do**
**Work-life balance**
**Housing**
And most importantly, **how happy are you actually living there?**

Please feel free to be brutally honest — I’m much more interested in the raw, unglamorous reality than the usual “this country is amazing!” expat content.
Would love to hear both the good **and** the bad. What surprised you after actually moving there? What do you wish you’d known beforehand?
Thanks! 🙏

Hi everyone,
I’m a 30F living abroad, and I’ve been working at packaging design agencies for the past 4–5 years.
I studied packaging and brand design, and honestly, I’ve struggled ever since I started my internship. Back then, I kept telling myself, “You’re just a junior. It’ll get easier once you have more experience.” I thought confidence and ability would naturally come with time.

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work at several well-known, global packaging design agencies. On paper, my career looks great. But internally, I’ve never really felt like I was good at my job or that I genuinely enjoyed it. I just kept pushing forward, hoping one day everything would finally click.

Now I’ve been a Senior Designer for about a year, and I still feel exactly the same as I did on my first day as an intern.
That realization has been devastating.
I’ve completely lost confidence in myself. I don’t get excited about new projects anymore—instead, I just feel anxious, knowing I’ll have to come up with concepts and worrying that I won’t be able to deliver work that’s good enough. The pressure feels so much heavier now because I’m no longer a junior. I can’t hide behind inexperience anymore.

The biggest issue is conceptual work. My mind just goes completely blank when I’m asked to develop creative concepts or build a strong design story. It takes me forever to come up with ideas, and even then they often don’t feel strong enough. I also struggle to visualize concepts in a compelling way. Every project becomes a cycle of self-doubt, disappointment, and feeling like I’m letting both myself and my creative directors down.
At this point, I think I have to admit that maybe this just isn’t the right fit for me. But that’s also terrifying because I’ve already spent five years building a career in this industry.

Lately, it’s become really difficult just to get through the workday. I can’t even do a simple task I just feel so overwhelmed. I’m dealing with depression, and I feel completely lost about what to do with my future. Starting over in a completely different field feels overwhelming, especially because I don’t even know what I’m actually good at. It seems more realistic to pivot into a different role within the design industry rather than changing industries entirely—but I have no idea what that role would be.

One thing I did genuinely enjoy was production and visualization work. I loved creating polished Photoshop mockups, making packaging renders look realistic, preparing files, and refining details. But when it comes to a conceptual visualizing I still struggle. I sort of realized this all stems from my childhood too that I loved drawing realistic things but was never be able to draw something that is super imaginative. Anyways, with AI becoming more capable at visualization, I’m worried those roles will continue to shrink, making that path less stable in the long run especially when I continue to live abroad I worry I might be limiting my career to a too niche path.

Has anyone here gone through something similar?
Did you realize years into your career that your role just wasn’t the right fit?
Did you pivot within design (or into another industry)?
If you were someone who struggled with conceptual thinking but enjoyed execution, where did you end up?
I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences or any advice. Right now I just feel very stuck and honestly scared about what comes next.

I’m not really sure why I’m posting this, but I need to get it off my chest.

A few years ago, I had to leave NYC because of visa issues. It wasn’t a choice I wanted to make. Since then, I’ve moved to a country in Southeast Asia for work. On paper, my life is fine. I have a stable job, a place to live, and I’m functioning. But emotionally, I feel like a part of me never left New York.

Every time I see NYC in a movie, a TV show, a YouTube video, or even a random photo online, it hurts. Not in a nostalgic way, but in a genuinely painful way.

I miss the ordinary things the most. Visiting and talking to my friends. Walking through my neighborhood. Grabbing coffee. Walking to Museums and park. Small getaways and different season activities. Taking the subway. Wandering around for no reason. Having my own little routines and feeling like I belonged somewhere. I miss my daily life there more than any landmark or exciting memory.

I know I also had a hard time living there that has faded away and I might be glorifying the good memories only at the moment. But the feeling goes beyond that. Life here doesn’t feel fulfilling in the same way. I’ve tried to build a new life, and I keep waiting for this feeling to fade, but it never really does.

The hardest part is that I want to go back so badly, but I’m terrified. The visa situation is still uncertain, and I’m scared of putting myself through that hope again only to get rejected and have my heart broken all over again.

What’s worrying me is how long this has lasted. It’s been years, and I still wake up feeling sad about it. Most mornings, the first thing I feel is grief. I’ve cried more over this than I ever thought possible. Sometimes it feels like I’m mourning a life that is still out there, continuing without me.

Has anyone else experienced this after leaving a city, a country, or a version of their life that they loved? How do you tell the difference between normal grief and being stuck? I genuinely don’t know why I can’t seem to move forward.

I feel embarrassed admitting how much this still affects me, but it’s becoming harder and harder to carry on my own.