Monday, September 26, 2016

The process

Moving abroad a lot means a lot of paperwork. Lots of forms, visas, licenses, and anything in between. Many of these things require long, redundant checklists of documents from passport photos to copies of IDs and the inescapable processing fees.

One of the many direct benefits of life abroad for me? Organisation, better handwriting, thinking and working in advance, communication with bureaucrats, offices, and crabby people in many different languages. My tendency to procrastinate has been dissipating as well - because procrastination can mean late fees, missed opportunities, employment rejections, and denied visas.


So yeah - if you've talked to me lately I've been a mess, a bit of a stressed wreck to be honest, but I've also been processing, applying, and preparing all of the documents I need to complete my huge to-do list spanning from exiting Germany (replacing my stolen Führerschein, cancelling my health insurance, and vacating my old flat), returning to America (replacing my MN drivers license, getting new credit cards and debit cards, organising my possessions into neat little boxes, applying for my substitute teacher license, preparing for the paperwork involved in changing my name), and finally to entering Switzerland (filing my marriage preparation paperwork, filing my Family Reunion National Type D visa paperwork, researching health insurance, finding a flat, getting in touch with employers who had sent out job offers for when I get the visa, wedding prep!). 


Everyday the stress and anxiety gets a bit lighter as one more thing gets checked off my to-do list, soon it'll all be filed and all of the forms will be sent. I will be working as a sub in Brainerd and making money. And I can begin to relax and enjoy the dwindling number of days that I have left in America. 


Learning to live in the moment is a lifelong struggle for me. I'm still not sure how I will feel once I land in Zürich around the beginning of December. But all I can say is this - there's no better person in the world to be going along for this ride with than my fiancé, there's no better family to be supporting me in this crazy adventure that is my life than is mine, and there's no better time than today to jump in headfirst into this one-act that is life. 


We only get one shot, might as well make the most of it.