Why I´ll leave Chile

A student of mine asked me last night if I´d be teaching at the institute again next year. I told him that I won´t be moving back to Chile after visiting my family in early 2008. He asked me if that´s because I´m unhappy here.

I told him that I like it here and that I´m very happy. I´m comfortable and it´s a good place to live. But if I stay here another year, I´ll be even more comfortable and it will be too hard to leave. I want to see the world and I´m afraid that becoming too comfortable or settled somewhere will be the end of my dream.

Moving to a new country (especially one where you don´t speak the language) is difficult, really difficult. It takes a lot of motivation to put yourself in such an uncomfortable situation. I don´t want to risk losing that motivation; that´s why I won´t be moving back to Chile.

Maybe this seems obvious or something, but it really surprised me. I´ve never before left a place where I was happy because I was worried about being too happy there!!