An American woman living in Paris has celebrated her six-year anniversary in the country by revealing the cruel reality.
Amanda Rollins, who is originally from Boston, Massachusetts, but moved to Europe in 2017, used TikTok to solve a list of problems she had to overcome.
Problems included collecting six phone calls, thwarting an ‘attempted kidnapping’ and visiting the hospital up to five times.
But still: the The 33-year-old still encouraged others to take the plunge, saying the experience is “priceless.”
Amanda Rollins, who is originally from Boston, Massachusetts, but moved to Europe in 2017, took to TikTok to solve a list of problems she should have overcome
The problems include having six pickpockets, thwarting an ‘attempted kidnapping’ and visiting the hospital up to five times
In the clip, which has been viewed more than 811,000 times to date, Amanda speaks directly to the camera as she candidly shares her thoughts.
She begins, “Today marks six years since I moved to Paris and I want to share some thoughts with you.
“There are four pregnant bellies I was never allowed to touch and seven newborns I will never hold. Four funerals I couldn’t attend and dozens of birthday parties I couldn’t attend.
“I have been known to pickpocket six cell phones, an Uber driver tried to kidnap me, I was attacked by 14 men in the Louvre, and I stunned my drink with something on the Seine.
‘I went to the police station five times to draw up a report and five times to the hospital.
“A Frenchman made me cry at least a hundred times and I was told it was possible,” when it was possible at least five hundred times.
Amanda continues, “When you move abroad, you miss everything at home. You will miss events, births, weddings and funerals.
“You will feel lost for countless days, know nothing about life, feel stupid. You will be discriminated against simply because you are an immigrant and treated as a second class citizen.
But nonetheless, the 33-year-old still encouraged others to take the plunge, saying the experience is “priceless.”
In the clip, which has been viewed more than 811,000 times to date, Amanda speaks directly to the camera as she candidly shares her thoughts.
“You make new friends and then they move. You won’t be able to express yourself in the way you want and you’ll find yourself constantly thinking, “I’m so much smarter in English, I’m so much funnier in English, they have no idea.”
But the problems don’t stop there, the social media star adds: “You think you’re fluent in the language and then find out you’re not, and then you think you’re really fluent this time – but no, you still aren’t.
“You’re going to have to relearn everything you know about how life works and it’s going to suck, but do it anyway.”
Amanda then turns her mind to why people need to move, regardless of the extensive list she just compiled.
She said she’s lived in three different apartments, bought a new cat and “had the most intense relationship of my life.”
Sadly, she reveals it led to “the worst break of my life,” but said nonetheless, “I’ve created a whole new sisterhood of women who are smart and caring and just unbelievable that I’m so lucky to be able to surround myself with them.”
It didn’t stop there, Amanda said, “I’ve had four jobs and one of them got me fired, which is very scary when you live abroad and I completely changed my career.”
She noted that she now has more than 725,000 followers on TikTok and claimed to have “helped millions of people with their trips to Paris.”
Concluding her candid speech, Amanda says, “The most important thing is that I can look myself in the mirror and say I’ve done everything I’ve always wanted to do”
“I’ve been to at least 40 concerts, done 100 picnics, eaten 500 baguettes and drunk a million bottles of wine,” she adds.
‘I have traveled to 35 countries and I think I finally understand French culture. I’ve done things I said I would never do and I’ve changed my mind about issues that have required me to go to war in the past.
“I learned that your beliefs are not stagnant and inherent; they are just beliefs, they are relative to your environment and they can change.’
Concluding her candid speech, Amanda says, “The most important thing is that I can look myself in the mirror and say I’ve done everything I’ve always wanted to do. There is no secret dream looming in the back of my mind that I save for a later date.
“There’s no such thing as I’ve done them all and that feeling… is what they write stories about, that’s what movies are about. People wish they could bottle that up and sell it…
“The only way to get that feeling is to take the plunge yourself. For me, Paris is the happiest place on earth and it’s where I belong, but maybe your place is somewhere else.’
She closes the clip with a rousing statement: “If there’s something you want to do in your life, just do it, or else you’ll regret it for the rest of your life and I promise you the feeling of yourself in being able to look in the mirror and say you did it is priceless.”