Throughout college I was dating a pretty horrible person. We had a tendency to break up and then get back together after a few months apart, and I knew I needed to get away from that. My solution was to move from the US to the UK for a graduate programme for a year. I knew nobody in the UK and had never been before. At first it was lonely and seemed to be a mistake. I had unfortuately fallen into the old trap with the ex, wanting to reconcile, but instead we broke contact completely. After a few months things got better and I started dating a German lady.

Fast forward seven years, and I am living in Germany, married to the German I met during my first year abroad, and have just submitted my PhD dissertation. Things are good, but it is really difficult sometimes to make connections thanks to the language barrier (although I am fluent in German). Finding employment is very difficult for me at the moment. I don't blame the employers. Why would they hire me, with a 70% command of the language, when they can hire any one of the other applicants who grew up with the language. Yes, I speak English, but so does half of the German population, so big fucking deal, right?

The best thing is the way in which I have grown since leaving. I grew up in a small town, with typical small town overly christian parents, and was brought up with small town, small minded ideals. I shed most of that before expatriating, but being abroad, having a friends base from literally every inhabited continent on this planet, and being challenged every day with being the 'outsider' has really helped shape me into a better person than I was 7 years ago.

So the TL/DR/Moral of the story - I ran away to Europe from the US, it's been difficult at times, but overall, it has been very positive for me, and I don't regret it at all.