The Courage to Be More: Why Moving Abroad Can Be a Healing Tool for Black Women

By Dr. Stormie Grace
Vercury Travel |

There are some conversations that begin with geography, and others that begin with the soul.

This one?
It’s both.

Because when I talk about moving abroad as a Black woman, I’m not just talking about lifestyle or adventure. I’m not even talking about “escaping” anything. I’m talking about healing. I’m talking about choice. And I’m talking about the radical act of redefining who you are—outside of the only story you may have ever known.

I Didn’t Move Because I Was Struggling—But I’ve Listened to Those Who Were

Let me be clear.

I didn’t leave the United States because I was broken, exhausted, or unsafe. I didn’t move to Spain because I was fleeing something.
But I did grow up hearing, witnessing, and absorbing the stories of Black women who were.

I’ve held space for those stories.
I’ve listened to their pain.
And even if I didn’t experience the same struggles personally, I recognized the system. The rhythm. The performance.

Because in the U.S., race isn’t just a part of the conversation—it is the conversation. And for Black women, that conversation can be one of inherited exhaustion. Of always having to be strong, always prepared to defend your identity, and often navigating spaces where you are hyper-visible and unseen at the same time.

The Story We Inherit—and the Ones We Keep Alive Ourselves

But here’s the deeper truth:
Sometimes, even when the world stops placing us in the role of “the strong Black woman,” we keep placing ourselves there.

We build identities around resilience.
We find community around pain.
We organize our sisterhood around shared struggle—because that’s where the bonds formed.

And whether we realize it or not, we start maintaining the very story that was meant to oppress us. Not out of weakness—but out of familiarity. Because that story gave us a role. A reason. A rhythm.

But what happens when that story isn’t echoed back to you anymore?

What Happens When the Culture Doesn’t Support the Story?

That’s what began to unfold for me after I moved to Spain.

Suddenly, the environment didn’t reflect the same expectations. People didn’t automatically see me as someone who needed to defend, prove, or represent. They weren’t expecting the script I had learned to recite.

And I was left with a quiet, almost disorienting question:
If I’m not surviving… then who am I?

I had to sit with that.
And for many of us, that’s the most courageous part of the journey—not buying the plane ticket, but facing the silence that comes when the old identity dissolves.

Because when you’re not seen through the lens of oppression—when the world around you doesn’t support that story anymore—you begin to ask deeper questions.

Who am I without the struggle?

What do I have to offer when I’m not fighting?

What kind of love, softness, creativity, or joy lives in me that never had space before?

This Is Where Healing Begins

And that’s when the healing starts—not because you’re suddenly in a perfect country or culture, but because you’re no longer trapped inside a script.

You meet parts of yourself that were buried beneath “being strong.”
You give yourself permission to feel—without a purpose.
To be soft—without guilt.
To want more—without apology.

That is what I’ve found in this life abroad.
Not perfection.
But possibility.

Moving abroad is not for everyone.
But for Black women who choose it with intention and courage—it can become one of the most powerful tools for transformation you’ll ever use.

Not because you’re running.
But because you’re expanding.

Letting Go Doesn’t Mean Letting Down

Yes, it’s hard.
Letting go of a story, especially one that gave you strength and sisterhood, can feel like betrayal.

But letting go doesn’t mean letting anyone down.
It means evolving.

You are not abandoning your Blackness.
You are letting it breathe. Letting it take on new textures, new definitions, new freedoms.

You are saying: I am allowed to be more than what I had to overcome.

So, Who Are You Now?

That’s the invitation.
That’s the sacred, quiet, revolutionary question that arises when you leave the noise behind:

Who are you now?

Without the armor.

Without the applause for surviving.

Without the story.

Who are you?

And what do you want to build, love, taste, create, and live?

My Story Is Just One—but It’s Proof

I’m here, living it.
And I can tell you with every fiber of my being:
There’s something on the other side of the struggle.
There’s joy. There’s peace.
There’s you.

And there’s space here—for your story too.

Not the one you inherited.
The one you choose to write.

Ready to explore what this could look like for you?
Grab my free guide, “Moving Abroad to Spain,” and get the practical tools to start your journey with intention and power.

✨ Download it here
✨ Follow along on Instagram @vercurytravel
✨ Ask the big questions. You’re allowed to.

With love from the other side of the story,
Dr. Stormie