I'm three years into my bachelor's degree. Same city, same campus, same routines, same everything. And somewhere along the way I started to feel like I’ve reached the edges of this environment could give me. So I made a decision: for my master's, I'm leaving the country no matter what.
Not because things are bad here, in fact I really like my city and I have all of my friends here and so many great memories. But so far every time I changed my scenery I felt like I’ve grown an insane amount.
What changing my surroundings actually does to me
There's something that happens when you're in a new place. You are suddenly way more aware. You notice things you wouldn’t normally do. You make connections you wouldn't have made sitting in your usual spot. You get thoughts and Ideas from everywhere. I experienced this most clearly during my exchange semester in Singapore. Everything was different so different from what I knew in my home country. And after just a few weeks gone I felt like I’ve grown more than in the months before
If you google about this you often hear the word “friction” as the reason. New environments force you to reexamine your assumptions about yourself, because none of your usual routines are available. You can't fall back on comfort. You have to figure things out. And that process is where a lot of personal growth actually happens.
The plan I'm building toward
After my internships are done, I'm not staying put. I want to go places I've never been, work on my business from places I've never worked from, and get the kind of exposure that only comes from putting yourself in unfamiliar situations. For me, this is both a personal and a professional decision. The best ideas I've had for content, for projects, for how I think about my future came when I was somewhere new. I want more of that.
Why many people don't do this
The honest answer is: it's scary. Things like moving countries, going somewhere unfamiliar, leaving behind your friends feel risky in a way that is hard to fully rationalize away.
But what you need to understand is that the discomfort of staying in the same place and never finding out what else is out there is quietly worse. It just doesn't feel as urgent. I feel like there is a strong correlation between how scary something seems and how much it makes you grow and learn.
But I can’t just move countries…
Fair enough. You don't have to move to another country. A new city. A new neighborhood. A new co-working space instead of your apartment. A trip somewhere you've never been. A semester abroad you've been putting off.
The point is to deliberately break the familiar environment that has been quietly limiting how you think. There is most certainly something you wanted to try out or see for a longer time now. Just go do it. You'll figure out the rest when you get there.
💡 My Recommendation of the week
Not related to the topic of this weeks newsletter but I’ve stumbled upon some crazy GitHub Projects in the past week (and I’m a tech guy after all haha)
-https://github.com/666ghj/MiroFish (Swam intelligence engine)
-https://github.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw (NVDIA’s secure openclaw alternative)
Definitely check these 2 out if you want to see what is happening at the forefront of agentic AI right now.
Have a great week,
Chris