EP 21 — End of the Year Reflections on life abroad with Maria

Transcript

Maria Barciela 0:01

Hello and welcome back to Almost Local. If you're listening as 2025 is coming to an end, thank you for being here. Whether you are walking, folding your laundry, driving, waiting for your kids, or sitting quietly with a cup of coffee. Thank you for sharing this moment with me Today is not a typical episode. I don't have any guests, but this is the last episode for 2025, I'm really glad to be, reaching our 21st. Episode for what's been, an exciting year with this project. Almost local, a community we are building about navigating life abroad, the apps and downs and the in between, the messy in between, what I love to call the messy in between. Today I am podcasting from Oakland. Thank you for being here. This episode is a pause before we end this year. It's mostly a reflection on what living abroad keeps teaching me. and a few learnings that stay with me in recent conversations and through the last podcasts, conversations I had with other almost locals. And solo episodes that I've been sharing with you from things that I've been reading, books that I've been recommending as well. I want to talk about, four things today. The whisper, the connection, curiosity, and intention. Maybe as you listen, you'll notice what resonates most for you. Thank you for being here and let's dive in. So let's start with the whisper. I've recently went to see Oprah Winfrey at her, show, conversations with Oprah here in Auckland. it was, a lovely night, listening to her. insightful, And inspiring thoughts about life in general, a lot of them also connect with our experience as, experts and migrants and navigating life abroad. So opera talks, about something that I, we all know, which is, this inside voice she calls the whisper, this quiet inner voice, speaks. Softly, but consistently, which is not fear, not the loud opinions, not expectations, ours or anyone's else. Just that gentle knowing inside of us. You know that little voice that sometimes already knows what's best for you where to stop what to do, what not to do. That whisper. It's whispering to us, and living abroad has taught me something very specific about this whisper. It gets easier to hear when everything else falls away, When you move countries, so much of the noise disappears. You're no longer surrounded by the same reference points, suddenly you hear yourself more clearly. But here's the thing, the whisper doesn't shout It doesn't argue, it doesn't chase you. And often when we are overwhelmed, tired unsure or stressed, we ignore it. We've all been there. one of my biggest learnings this year has been this. learning to trust that quiet voice again, not because it has all the answers, but because it usually knows the direction Right. I wonder, when was the last time you heard your whisper What has it been trying to tell you? One of my wishes is that I listen to this whisper and follow through, because at the beginning, the whisper is gentle it's a voice. Telling us, go in this direction, do this, do that. if we don't listen to this whisper, things can become more difficult in the future. And we might go back and think, why didn't I listen to this inner voice, to this whisper? The second learning that has been staying with me is this. connection before clarity. When life feels heavy, and can feel overwhelming, Our instinct is often to pull inward, to isolate, to think. I'll reach out once, I'll have things figured out. But one thing I've learned after living abroad for 10 years is that clarity doesn't usually come first. Connection does. from sitting across someone who said. Me too, or I felt that, or even just you are not alone in this. Living abroad can make us feel like we need to be strong. We need to be Resilient. We need to be capable. We need to be all the time ready and having all the answers, but strength isn't isolation. Sometimes the bravest thing we can do is reach out before we even know exactly what to say. if this year taught me anything, it's this. You don't have to figure it all out alone. And maybe you were never meant to. The third learning is one I keep coming back to often. It's to follow what excites you, not what makes sense on paper, not what looks good from the outside, but what sparks curiosity living abroad already asks us to be beginners. New systems, new cultures, new ways of being, new rules, new everything. somewhere along the way we can forget how powerful curiosity is this year reminded me that excitement is information. Learning something new, trying something unfamiliar, saying yes to a small spark. These are not distractions. They are clues. Curiosity becomes a compass when the map is unclear. So I'll ask you gently, what has been quietly exciting? You recently? and have you given it space? And finally my favorite one, intention. This is the piece that ties everything together for me. Not goals, not outcomes, not plans, but intention. Living abroad has taught me that plans change often. We all know that we have a plan, but reality is totally different from that plan. We stick to the plan, but often this plan is totally different from reality, right? But intention can stay. That's what stays our why. When things feel uncertain and things don't go the way we were planning them to go, intention becomes an anchor. It's the difference between asking what should I do next? And why am I here? Why am I here in this season of my life? What brought me here? What was that intention as we move forward 2026? My wish for myself and for all of us, is alignment that we listen to the whisper. Our inner voice that we connect before we isolate, that we follow, what excites us, and that we move into the next year with intention anchored even when everything feels in motion. So before the year ends, I'll leave you with one question. What intention is guiding you right now? Not what you want to achieve, but how you want to be. Thank you for being part of this community, For reflecting, for showing up even when it's uncertain. Wherever you are in the world. Thank you for tuning in and I hope you feel a little less alone today. I'll see you soon. now I'm off to my morning coffee as usual.