yourself<\/em> used to the idea of traveling.<\/p>\nI think we get so trapped in our own bubble sometimes, that we forget there\u2019s a whole world out there! Getting out of your own country and experiencing other cultures is so important to keeping a good perspective and not getting trapped in a negative feedback loop focused on all the things you don\u2019t like about where you currently are.<\/p>\n
We might feel like our country is going to hell in a handbasket, but the rest of the world is out there living their lives. And that is really the point of this whole exercise, right? Finding a place where you and your family can live your best life. \u00a0So, get out there and live it<\/em>.<\/p>\nRenew your passports<\/strong><\/h2>\nI\u2019m not sure if any other countries experienced this like we did in Canada, but, for a while last year, it took an extremely long time to get your passport renewed. Like, 6 months. I don\u2019t know about you, but I don\u2019t like the idea of not having my key travel document when I need it. I need a Rolaid just thinking about it.<\/p>\n
In Canada, you can renew your passport once it is within a year of expiry. And, for both of our kids, that\u2019s exactly what we did. As soon as it hit a year of validity remaining, we sent that sucker in for renewal. We knew we had a set period of time where we would not be traveling so, in the event that the passport took an extremely long time to come, we wouldn\u2019t be pressed for time.<\/p>\n
Generally, when you travel to another country, and definitely if you are applying for residency, you need to have at least 6 months remaining on your passport. We renew our passports early, as a rule, so we are never in the situation where we don\u2019t have it when we need it, and so we always have more than enough time remaining on it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a small step you can take to be prepared and it saves a lot of stress!<\/p>\n
Conclusion: Control the controllables<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"I\u2019m](\"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I am not someone who enjoys being out of control. Over the past few years, I have felt out of control a lot.<\/em> But something I have been working on is the concept of controlling the controllables.<\/p>\nYou may not be able to pursue a Plan B to the extent you would like because of any number of issues. And I\u2019m right there with you. But there are a ton of things you can do in pursuit of your goal even while being somewhat shackled to your country. It\u2019s not about doing everything; it\u2019s about doing something<\/em>. And the great news is, generally, there will always be something you can <\/em>do to prepare for when you have more flexibility in your life.<\/p>\nSo, take advantage of this time. Relish it, even. This is kind of a fun time where you can do something without really doing<\/em> something, if you know what I mean. These aren\u2019t necessarily high-stakes activities, but they will prepare you for when you actually need to do those things.<\/p>\nAnd don\u2019t just take it from me, take it from Abraham Lincoln himself:<\/p>\n
\u201cGive me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four<\/em><\/p>\nsharpening the axe.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nPerhaps it\u2019s time to start sharpening your axe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Believe me, I hear you on this one. Having two school-aged kids, my husband working in a location-dependent job, and various other life complications (ugh), we can\u2019t just up and leave. As much as, some days, I wish we could. But that\u2019s no reason to just throw in the towel. There is still a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":705,"featured_media":47978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[38790,1753,38788,38792,38789,4423,2022,11825,38791,23310,4482,5802,38786,3915,2081,3379,2017,38793,2198,38787],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Picture-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47975"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/705"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47979,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47975\/revisions\/47979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47975"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=47975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"I\u2019m](\"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n