Can You Really Just Move to Spain?
How I realized you don't have to be in your 20s to move overseas
What could compel someone to liquidate nearly every physical possession and spend thousands of dollars to move to another country?
It’s a fair question I haven’t quite figured out how to answer yet. The one word I keep coming back to is time.
Like many people who lost loved ones in 2020, I lost my mom, although it was not COVID-related. It took nearly a year for me to begin feeling some semblance of normal again, and when I did, I looked around at my tidy little life in my neighborhood full of beautiful homes in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and thought, “Is this it?”
On the outside, we had everything everyone strives for in the American Dream: two nice cars in the driveway, a big house with plenty of room for everyone, a dog, a backyard, and a good household income that could support our family of four. We’d worked for two decades to get it, which was all my mom hoped we would achieve.
But something was missing.
Those who know me well know that, as an adult, I’ve never lived in a house longer than four years. I get bored or disenchanted, and I move on. My husband, thankfully, tolerates it and gets on board with whatever scheme I cook up, usually looking forward to a new project he can make his own. The kids never changed schools, so it worked.
Until it didn’t.
In early 2023, as we were getting in the car to leave an appointment for our kids’ passports, we turned on the radio to the news that The Covenant School in Nashville–just 30 minutes up the road from us–had just experienced a school shooting. It was shocking, this feeling that this kind of event could happen so close to us.
While not really the catalyst, Covenant woke me from a drowsy existence. Within a few weeks following the shooting–I still have no idea how it happened–I was down the rabbit hole of researching an overseas move. I’d always dreamed of living overseas, but it felt impossible, especially as a married adult with two kids in elementary school. You couldn’t just move … could you?
As it turns out, Americans can move to Spain, but not in the way most people imagine.
After researching Portugal and Spain, Spain quickly became the frontrunner, and as I discussed it with my husband, it began to appear increasingly possible. But could we do this? Could we learn a new language in our 40s? Could we ask our kids to learn a new language? Could we all adapt to an entirely new culture? It was asking a lot.
And that’s where I’ll leave it until next time.
You can do it!