When I moved away to Asia and when I came back, a lot of people told me how courageous and gutsy I was for leaving for the unknown.

This always made me feel a bit awkward; I never thought of myself as someone particularly courageous – in fact, a lot of things scare me.

I was terrified the night I left a very comfortable life to move for unknown opportunities in an unknown land but, I knew I had to raise above that.

There were some real hard parts to my year away but, there’s nothing I regret. If anything, my journey abroad taught me that life is not about having fears or not, it’s about how well you face your fears. Everyone has fears; we just don’t face them the same way.

For more lessons from abroad, check out 26 things you can learn by living abroad for a year.