You get to see exactly what you want to see for exactly as long as you want to see it.

One thing that helped me a lot when I first started traveling alone was writing a comforting letter to myself in my journal—it sounds silly, but reading “you’re going to be nervous and feel like this is the wrong choice when you get on the plane, but you’ll feel better when you get there and you’ll have a good time” actually helped a lot.

You’ll need a job to move there, but if you’ve got an in-demand skill, salaries are good and there’s no income tax. For white-collar workers, employer-provided health care is excellent.