Moving abroad alone: leaving home and starting from zero
I arrived in Milan when I was 20. I came from the Middle East with a suitcase, a lot of expectations, and honestly a lot of fear. I did not know anyone in the city. No family waiting for me, no close friends, no real support system. I had never even taken a flight before. Everything felt new at once — the airport, the language, the streets, the people, the silence after arriving somewhere and realizing you are completely on your own. If you have ever moved to a new country alone, you know that silence. It is the first thing nobody warns you about.
How I started meeting people in a city where I knew nobody
One of the first things I did was join a language school. I thought I was going there to learn Italian, but it became much more than that. It became the first place where I started meeting people in a new city. Students from everywhere — Europe, Latin America, Asia, different backgrounds, different stories, all trying to build something new far from home. Many were on Erasmus, excited and free in a way I had never experienced before. Being around them opened my world. My Italian improved little by little, but what really changed me were the conversations between classes, shared coffees, awkward introductions, and discovering how much people can connect even when they barely speak the same language.
The loneliness of living abroad that nobody talks about
But it was not romantic all the time. There was bureaucracy everywhere. Documents, residence permits, offices, waiting rooms, numbers to call, papers I did not understand, forms in a language I was still learning. Sometimes a simple task could take days and leave me mentally exhausted. And then there was everything happening inside me — fear of failing, fear of disappointing the people back home, fear of making the wrong choice. There were evenings I came back home overwhelmed and completely drained. Moments of loneliness, frustration, crying, doubting myself, wondering if I was strong enough to keep going. This is the part of expat life that does not appear in the Instagram posts.
How to make friends when you move abroad: act before you feel ready
What changed over time was not that fear disappeared. It did not. I was still nervous speaking. Still uncomfortable introducing myself. Still afraid of rejection. But I kept trying anyway. I talked to strangers even when I felt awkward. I started conversations about random things just to practice. Sometimes they went nowhere. Sometimes they became real connections. The most honest thing I can tell you about how to make friends in a new country is this: confidence does not always arrive first. Sometimes you act while afraid, and confidence quietly comes later.
Why I built Sociatrip — and what those years had to do with it
Looking back, so much of Sociatrip comes from those years in Milan. From arriving somewhere new and not knowing anyone. From wanting to connect but not knowing how to begin. From understanding how powerful one conversation can be when you feel alone in a new place. I built Sociatrip with that feeling in mind — for travelers, for newcomers, for people starting over, and for anyone who has ever landed in a city carrying fear, hope, and the simple wish to meet someone real.