'I ditched sunny Spain for the British dream but there's one thing I would change'

My generation - which is Gen Z - dream of moving abroad and living their 20s like they do in the movies.

It’s funny because, now that I’ve lived abroad for quite some time, I still reminisce about my life in Spain and can only hope for the day when I can move back. In search of the British version of the ‘American Dream’, 11 years ago, my parents made the life-changing decision to pack all our belongings and drive a total of 14 hours from a little town in the Costa Brava called Empuriabravato the UK’s capital, London.

At the age of 14, the only thing I cared about was hanging out with my friends after school and having the typical Spanish teenagerebellious life.

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Instead, I moved to a country where they spoke a different language, and I had only begun to learn the sentence conjugations. So yes, it was pretty rough at first.

Nonetheless, over the years, I’ve learnt to understand that everything happens for a reason, and that the decisions that your parents make are always for your own good. But if I could change one thing, it would be my understanding of the British lifestyle.

Surely I’m not the only person who has gone through culture shock, and having spent half of my teenage years in Spain and in the UK, as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to the realisation of how different things are, and how much your surroundings play a huge part in your transition.

The moving process was challenging for me; I really missed home, and I felt like my teenage years had been 'robbed' without my permission. I loved hanging out with my neighbours and friends after school, playing football, roaming around the town on our bicycles and buying snacks that cost less than a fraction of what they cost now.

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I never understood the British lifestyle, or perhaps I didn’t get the memo about running to the ice cream van after school hours for a traditional 99 Flake. During the majority of days after school, I would go home and do my homework, and I wouldn’t make an effort to make plans.

Well, I guess it’s hard when everyone is from different boroughs, and it takes ages to get from one place to another. Being from a small town, it was much easier to make friends and spend time with them. Even now, at the age of 25, I can still relate to it.

Despite everything, my teenage years in the UK were fulfilling. I made good memories, and I will always cherish them. Thinking back about my life in Spain, it always makes me wonder how things would’ve turned out if my parents hadn’t made such a drastic decision.

But I guess I'll never know, but I'm not mad about it.