 Peruvian birthday, Peruvian birthday, Peruvian birthday episode! Okay, so I guess I gotta explain to you first what a Peruvian birthday is and tell you a little bit about this episode before I start going into it all. My Peruvian birthday is this week and I'm celebrating by not doing a highly edited video for you. I'm just gonna be talking a little bit to the camera today and if you guys are not interested in that, that's fine, go ahead, click away. But, if you wanna get to know me a little more and find out why an American would ever come to Peru So, why would an American come to Peru? I think first we actually have to break that up into two questions. First, why would someone leave the United States and then why would they come to Peru? On the first part, why would I leave the United States? Well, it was pretty simple. I've talked about this before a little bit on the channel, but back in 2008, 2009, there was a massive financial crisis that hit the United States and it left me without a job. I was faced with a dilemma. I had just graduated high school and my choices were either get into a bunch of debt to go to college or find something else to do. And since there weren't any jobs for me at the time in the United States, I wasn't just gonna sit there and do nothing. I started looking around for other places where I could go. My brain said let's go like the whole world and then let's start reducing options from there until we settle on some places that might be cool. One of those cool places was Peru. How did I get there? In middle school and high school, I took some Spanish courses. So I decided that I would go to a country that spoke Spanish and hopefully get good at speaking Spanish. So that narrowed my options down quite a bit. From there, it became a question of like where could I easily immigrate to and what countries have cool things that I want to see and where maybe could I find, you know, good food, good cost of living, all these factors that, you know, go into making a good life. So I ruled out right away the countries that had like massive problems with poverty and government instability. And then, you know, I crossed off some of the countries that had really, really strict immigration laws or ones that made it difficult for you to get a visa to stay. I also crossed off countries that I saw as super expensive like Chile or Uruguay. I didn't have a lot of money at the time. I literally only had $1,500 in my bank account when I came here. I settled on three countries, Cuba, Costa Rica and Peru. I quickly ditched the Cuba option because although I thought it would be very interesting as an American to live in a country where I'm basically prohibited from being, it obviously would have been really difficult logistically. And then ruled out Costa Rica because I know there's a huge expat retiree population there and I didn't really want to go to another country just to be surrounded by more Americans. So that settled it. I decided to come to Peru. I came to Peru on June 22, 2009 and I've been here ever since. And that's where the Peruvian birthday comes from. I don't really care much about my actual birthday. If you think about it, do you remember your birthday? Do you really know what happened on that day? Like unless your parents took really gross videos and showed them to you, you wouldn't know what happened that day. You don't remember it. I didn't even do anything on that day. My mom did all the work. She's the one that should get presents. So instead, I basically look at a day where I did something for myself where I made an accomplishment for myself. I look back on that decision and I remember exactly what people told me when I said I was going to do this. Everyone said I was crazy. Some people even started placing bets on how long I would be in Peru like saying that I probably wouldn't last more than a month or a week. I think the longest someone gave me was like three or four months and maybe only one or two people close to me told me it was a good idea. Just like then, I've also been told that this idea wouldn't work, that score wouldn't work, that my job decisions wouldn't work and that my life here would come to an end suddenly and unexpectedly because of some serious problem. It hasn't happened yet. Within like the first week of being here, I kind of fell in love and I immediately knew I would stay and since then I've been living in Peru and I don't regret that at all. I still go back to the United States every year or two to see my family and also buy stuff because I'm too big for this country and it's really difficult for me to find things like shoes and socks and just basic essentials. I like my life here. The reason I wanted to share this a little bit today is that I think for a lot of people the idea of moving abroad is scary. I'm not gonna lie. I had moments of fear when I was getting ready to do this. I mean, I remember buying my one-way ticket to Peru at 19 years old and thinking, dude, do you really know what you're doing right now? Like, you're talking about leaving your country and not coming back and that was a little intense and I remember the first time I sat down on the plane to go to Peru. It was a Spirit Airlines flight which is basically the combi of the skies and everybody in there was speaking Spanish and it hit me. I'm about to leave my country. I'm gonna go to a place where I don't speak the language where I don't know anyone and where I have literally no life support if something goes wrong. And there was a moment where I thought I could get off this plane and just go back home and say it was all a joke and that would be it. But I didn't. I buckled up. I strapped in, sat back in my chair and got ready for the ride. Honestly, it was the best decision I've ever made and it's one of the reasons that I wanted to do score. I want you to have that same experience. I want you to be able to leave your country and go abroad and discover yourself a little more and just learn more about the world. Coming to Peru has given me a second language. It's allowed me to make great friends, develop a career, study for less and ultimately start this. I would not have any of these things if I had stayed in the United States. The recent results of the elections here in Peru have had people very concerned about the future. I want to be the first to tell you that I think everything's gonna be fine. I don't really see a reason to be afraid. I'm not going anywhere. If this event has gotten you to think about leaving the country and has gotten you to want to go abroad, maybe to study as a way of leaving the country with or without the results of the recent elections, I would have suggested you get out of the country anyway because it's a good idea. Not because Peru is a terrible country to be in but because it's good for you to go abroad and learn more. I hope you go ahead and consider moving abroad but don't do it because you're afraid of staying in Peru. Do it because you're looking forward to something better somewhere else. Hopefully someday you can have your American birthday or your French birthday or your Spanish birthday or whatever kind of birthday you have and hopefully we can make that happen. So thanks for hanging out with me for a little bit this week. Next week we'll be back to usual with a how to study in blank video. So make sure you subscribe to the channel and I will see you next week. Peruvian birthday, Peruvian birthday. It's Peruvian birthday.