Yes, you read that title correctly.  I packed my bags and moved to Norway.  Do I have a visa yet? Nope.  Will I get one?  Hopefully.  Currently, I am in the visa process.  So send your positive vibes in Oslo’s direction from wherever you read this!

Mid-January I stepped off the plane expecting a snowy landscape at Oslo Lufthavn and since have been slowly settling into the city. This winter has proven to be extremely mild with very little snow and my home state, Connecticut, is tens of degrees colder at this moment!

For as long as I can remember, I had always dreamt of living abroad.  Check!  I’ve now lived and worked in two countries aside from the United States.  After spending a semester in London, I fell in love with Europe while romantically day dreaming about One Day when I would live in a flat in some old picturesque European city.  In all of my day dreams… throughout all of these years… over the course of my entire life… while reading books set in foreign lands… do you think that I ever, once, at all, for a single moment envisioned myself living in Oslo, Norway?  Absolutely not!  Yet here I am. 

Life has a way of presenting a ten foot visibility down mysterious paths and the only way to find out where they lead is to make a choice, putting one foot in front of the other.  Clara Bensen writes one of my favorite quotes in her memoir, No Baggage:  A Minimalist Tale of Love and Wandering.

She says, “Magic happens when you head out into the unknown with wonder in your right hand and terror in your left.”

Moving to Norway has been one of the most terrifying paths I have selected.  Many who know me might be surprised by this statement because surely moving to New Zealand at age 22, to the complete opposite side of the planet would be much scarier, right?  Oslo is only an 8 hour flight from my family rather than 25+ and yet, there’s no guarantee I receive this visa.  There’s no assurance I’ll be allowed to stay in Europe. And if I don’t, I genuinely don’t have a back-up plan. How’s that for transparency!

For every person in the United States reading this thinking, “but Tara! Of course they’ll give you a visa! You’re you.  A good person! An American!”  Step back and understand that here I am an immigrant, just like my family was to the United States in both the 1800s and the 1970s, just like many people seeking a better or different life in the U.S. today, where the political climate and social conversation surrounding immigration is extremely unwelcoming. 

I moved to Norway for love and better opportunities.  If you sit at home honestly believing that I deserve it, please take the time to think of the people who wish to relocate to your own country and call it their home too.  And please give them the same consideration and support you give me in my pursuits.  To stand against immigration is to stand against one of the fundamental building blocks upon which the United States was built.

Until I find out about my future, I will continue to explore this city on a budget, snap photos, read books, and write.

If you’re interested in hearing more about the visa process for moving to Norway, let me know. Otherwise, share your thoughts and recommendations below!