Hi all, I'm going to be moving to another country after the summer holidays, and I've come to realise that that means I'll have to come out to every new person I meet. It's a bit overwhelming... I'm kinda hoping that I'll find an awesome girlfriend, but for now I jist hope I'll find awesome friends. Does anyone else have any experience with changing countries? It's already quite stressfull, but the coming out bit adds to the stress. Maybe it's my chance to start all iver again and be whoever I want to be. I dunno... And also, any advice on making new friends? I'll be joining a sports team and stuff, but I'm not a big fan of having to meet people at school. I also tend to not get on well with girls my age.
I've never moved to a different country, but I have changed schools before. Although it wasn't recent (I changed schools in like 2nd grade), I do actually remember switching schools and such pretty well, and I was terrified, but that's because I literally knew no one. It was kind of similar though, but instead of switching countries, I was, in a way, switching social classes (kind of). The private school had kind of posh and prissy people plus uniforms (which was the reason I switched), but the public school had more rough and I guess more free spirited people. I was extremely aware of everything when I was little, and I took this opportunity as a chance to find people with the same interests, and be myself, but I also remember making sure I kept low in the beginning to find out how people who grew up a little different than me lived. I remember I actually was stressed out (even though I was so young), because I was afraid that people already had their friends and such. But the one thing I learned, was that not every group is set and stone, and many people are perfectly happy to have another friend. - I literally was like 7 or 8, but changing surroundings are usually similar, no matter how old you are - The next thing I talk about though is something more extremely relevant, but I was not the person who had this experience. My friend is a foreign exchange student from Spain. She came here last Summer, and I've asked her before about things like switching countries, and this is what i could get from her: When I first met her, it was at a sports practice. She didn't have anything to do, and wanted to participate in activities, so she joined in like the semi-middle of the season. Because she did that, not only did she make friends, but she was more accustomed to the typical high school kids. When I met her, she seemed nervous, and I think she was concerned about how people would treat her (cause 'Murica, and honestly, some *mostly stupid* Americans have the view that people from different countries are automatically dumber than they are). She kinda had a culture shock, because she's never been to the New York-ish area. After a short while, she got the hang of things, and made a group of friends. To be extremely honest here was a few people from my school who took the typical American standpoint of people from other countries, but it was literally only 3 people. Most of the people were extremely happy she was there, since she brought a different view of the world and a different culture to the table. She'll be leaving in under a month, but I'm almost positive she's really glad this has happened, and these are kinda like the tips I picked up from her; - Participating in activities you may enjoy will really help making friends - Go with the flow of things if you don't know how people typically act there - Find people who seem similar to you - You may not want to try to get into the popular crowd (my group was kinda like in the lower middle of school social groups, but were all really chill and cool with whatever) Personally, with coming out, I've never met a unsupportive person who's in the music/art type activities, so they may be the safest bet. This was an experience from my friend, so idk if I got everything right, and this was in America, so different countries have different results.
