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Woman who moved from Ireland to Boston shares why the American dream is 'all a lie.'

"I have been bamboozled."

via Kayleigh Donahue/TikTok and Zeeshan Kundi/Pexels
Kayleigh Donahue explains the differences between the U.S. and Europe.

Living abroad is a dream many people have, whether it's spending a summer in a foreign country or packing up their entire life to make the permanent move. In fact, about a third or more of Americans would move to another country if they had the means, and many do. Some estimates show that between 4-5 million non-military US citizens live abroad.

But life is funny, and sometimes these ex-pats come back to the United States for a variety of reasons like family or career, which gives them an extremely interesting perspective when they begin their re-entry.

Take American-born TikTok user Kayleigh Donahue, for example. She's going viral on the platform because of her unflinching take on why it was a mistake for her to move back to the U.S. after spending 4 years in Ireland.

She moved back to the Boston area. Kayleigh moved back to the U.S. from Ireland to make more money, but that didn’t go as planned.

Even though she got paid more, the cost of living was so much higher that she saved less money than she did in Ireland. She also missed the generous number of vacation days she got in Europe as compared to America.

"I have been bamboozled," she begins in the now viral clip with over 600 thousand views.


@kayshaynee

popping off always #americanabroad #usavseurope #movingabroad #livingabroad #europevsamerica #fyp


Many people like Kayleigh move abroad, especially to European countries, for a slower way of life, better work-life balance, more opportunity for travel, or just to see something different. But America is the land of opportunity, right? For some, that promise always beckons, no matter where they go. So even though Kayleigh had an amazing life in Ireland, she wound up moving home to advance her career and make more money.

“Basically, I really got sucked into the American Dream way of living when I was abroad, which is funny because I loved living abroad,” Kayleigh said. “But you know, making more money, that’s enticing. Good job, that’s enticing. It’s not true. It used to be. It definitely used to be. You could come here and make a ton of money, make a great life for yourself. But the younger generation today, in this country — screwed. It’s literally all a lie that is sold to you. It’s such a struggle, and the older generation doesn’t seem to see how much of a struggle it is for the younger generation here.”

In the end, who wants to work harder for a lower quality of life?

“Needless to say, I will most likely be moving back to Europe where 20-plus days of paid vacation a year is literally the law, and I will make less money, but somehow, you know, the cost of living is lower there and I can save more,” Kayleigh concluded the video.

Viewers applauded Kayleigh for coming to the realization:

"Yep, I made the same mistake. Then I realized that people and quality of life are more important than income. Enjoy life!" one wrote.

"Get that. We moved back to US and it was horrible. We moved back to the UK. Happier now was 6 weeks off a year" said another.

"I think there are actually very few people who derive their enjoyment and self-worth from their job. Quality of life is so much more important," another user added.

@kayshaynee

so lucky to live this life🤍 #movingabroad #americanabroad #thenetherlands #europetravel


Kayleigh made good on her promise. As of January 2025, she now lives in Amsterdam with her Dutch husband, and they seem to be loving their life abroad.

A Mercer survey in 2024 put Amsterdam as the sixth best city in the world for quality of life. It's a place with rich culture, amazing public transportation, and a reasonable cost of living to earning potential ratio.

@kayshaynee

I guess I live here now??? #movingabroad #dutchtiktok #amsterdam #americanabroad #internationalcouple

Young Americans really aren't asking for that much. They just want to be able to afford and enjoy their life, and they're willing to work hard for it. America should be giving them those opportunities instead of losing more and more talented young people to other countries.

This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

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American who moved to Italy shares the 5 things she'll never do again

Europe changes people.

via Eggmergency/Flickr

A tourist visiting Italy. (Representative image)

Americans pride themselves on living in the “best country in the world.” However, the American way of life isn’t for everyone and some prefer the more laid-back approach to life that people enjoy in Europe.

Four years ago, a writer named Roze left her tiny apartment in Los Angeles, booked a one-way flight to Turn, Italy and never looked back. Now, she documents her new life in Europe on TikTok to inspire others to pursue their dreams.

Recently, she posted a video in which she counts down 5 things that she’ll never do now that she lives in Italy. These are examples of the relief some Americans feel when they move to Europe and settle into their new, stress-free lifestyle.

1. Rush

"One of the first things that attracted me to Italian culture is the fact that people don't seem to be in a rush. There are no drive-thrus. People don't walk and eat. If you need a coffee, you sit down and drink a cup of coffee. There's always time for that."

2. Own a car

"I don't plan on ever living in a place where you need a car to get around. I don’t like the expense of a car and it’s just bad for the environment.”

3. Live for work

“I’ll never obsess about work as much as I used to do in the U.S. Now, I'm not saying that people don't work here. People work very hard, but there's not as many people who make working hard their whole personality."

@rozeinitaly

Visit TikTok to discover videos!

4. Trust the internet for business hours

"If you look it up on Google Maps, it says that it's open from 10 am to, I think, 7 or 7:30 pm. Does that mean I can go there at like 2:30 3 o'clock? No. What is not listed on there is that they are closed from 1 to 4 for lunch."

5. Worry about medical bills

“I just don’t plan on living anywhere where there is not some kind of universal healthcare.”

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17 things that ‘poor people’ loved until rich people made them too expensive

Why does everything have to cater to rich people these days?

via Pixabay and Burst/Pexels

A gentleman camping and a woman shopping in a thrift store

Do you ever feel that just about every experience in life now caters to upper-middle-class and rich people? Sure, everyone is feeling the brunt of inflation, but something else happened along the way.

For example, over the past 20 years:

The price of going to a concert has quadrupled.

A one-day admission ticket to Disneyland has gone up around three times.

The cost of the average American home has gone up around two-and-a-half times.

Pleasures that were affordable to everyone suddenly had to become luxury experiences. Face-value tickets went by the wayside in favor of having to buy things on the secondary market. Simple things that blue-collar people enjoyed have been gentrified by upper-class people who thought they were cool and “authentic.”

It seems impossible for the average person to get a good deal in life, and if they do, someone will figure out how to make rich people want it and sell it for double the cost.

A fed-up person on Reddit named r/degreeofvariation, asked the online forum, ”What was loved by poor people until rich people ruined it?” The question received over 18,000 responses in just six days. Given the commenters’ reactions, it seems there hasn’t been a simple, affordable pleasure in American life that hasn’t been co-opted by people with money and ruined.

Here are 17 things that poor people loved until rich people ruined them.

1. Living in warehouses

"Yes! They tore down all the real lofts to build condos they call lofts." — StrainAcceptable

"And people complained the windows are too big and everyone can see in, and they didn't like the open floor plan. That was the whole point. Artists had lots of room and tons of natural light." — richarddrippy69

2. Etsy

"I bought so much stuff for my wedding in 2012 from Etsy. It was all handmade and so cute and inexpensive. It’s changed so much from the cool site it once was." — PrudentConfection

3. Food banks

"My local food bank put out a news article basically saying that rich people need to stop using the food bank as a 'life hack' to lower their grocery bills." — ConfidentlyCorrect

"This is why food banks in my area now need proof of need. Which is shit, because it means jumping through more hoops to put food on the table when you’re already desperate." — DoorSubstantial2104

4. eBay

"It used to be so useful to get all kinds of cheap or unique things. Then more and more big commercial sellers joined the club, and eventually, eBay itself forgot about what and who made their platform a success in the first place." — Onesmilematters

5. Cabins

"Quiet out-of-the-way country cabins sitting by lakes. Now they are overpriced Airbnbs." — Amyaaurora

"I'd even say Airbnbs themselves. They started as a potentially cheap alternative to hotels run by people who have extra space they aren't doing anything with. Now people build guest houses specifically for Airbnb and treat It like a full-on rental." — Jarf17

6. Fixer-uppers

"Buying a 'fixer-upper' home and spending weekends working on it. I was really looking forward to that." — Couldstrife1191

7. Thrift stores

"Thrift shopping. I'm not 'thrifting' I'm f**kin broke." — Elduroto

"Sometimes I feel like it's cheaper to buy clothes at Target or Walmart brand new than it is to buy from a thrift store." — Urchintexasyellow

8. Festivals

"Burning Man was on my bucket list until rich fucks started showing up with bodyguards and started establishing private zones." — hgaben90

9. Farmers markets

"That's what our markets are turning into as well. It's gone from local farmers and affordable produce to artisanal creations for the elite." — KeepOnRising19

10. Houses

"We poor people would work our entire lives to own one. Property became a great investment and way to increase wealth so rich people started buying them. Not to live in as intended but to rent to the poor and keep them poor by renting so they will never be able to save enough to afford their own." — Etobocoke

11. Fajitas

"I remember being able to get skirt steak really cheap and sometimes for free." — DiegoJones4

"Oxtails/ crab/ wings used to be so cheap when I was younger." — Glohan21

"A few influential chefs decided to introduce traditional peasant food to the world, and now oxtail ragu with pappardelle is a $30 dish in fancy restaurants." — Patorama

12. Carhartt

"Blue collar workers needed the durability, then celebrities wore 'fashionably' and drove up the price." — Pepperdice

"...and then Carhartt realized that their brand was fashionable, and started throwing their logo on cheap shit to capitalize off it." — Glochnar

13. Hobbies

"Burning Man, Collectable Card Games, Retro Video Games, GOING TO CONCERTS...like seriously, just pick a hobby. Once the re-sellers get into it, prices go through the roof, and nobody can afford to do anything." — divine_shadow

14. NFL games

"While I can afford them I have to ask myself what the actual F/ $500+ for a football game? The experience is awful too. Too many breaks, too many calls you can't hear. It's so much better to be on your couch or in a bar. Who is buying these tickets? $2300 for good seats in LA? That's insane. It's a game. On TV." — StanFigjam

"In 1995 the average ticket to the Super Bowl was $200... This year it was $3800." — RumWalker

15. McDonald's

"It was originally a place for a quick eat because it was cheap, but now it’s just mid food for high prices." — DrMcSpicy

"The old dollar menu stuff is like $3.50 minimum now." — Perrymasson

16. Camping

"I'd say people with campers ruined camping. Can’t drive two miles in the mountains without having to hug the side of the trail to let some dude with $100k+ truck and trailer squeeze past you on a road they have no business going down." — Reasonable-Tutor-943

"This and now it's impossible to get a campsite because of the plethora of Sprinter vans and RVs that cost more than my house. Nobody (few people) camps in tents anymore!" — all-about-climate

"I swear 95% of the time I’m the only person in the campground with a compact car and not a $70k+ truck." — DeliciousMoments

17. Life

"'Poor' people I knew were always happy with the simple pleasures. Now even these simple pleasures are almost impossible to afford unless they're necessary and you break your back to pay for them so you almost resent them. Rich people are literally ruining life." — Wenisdan

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What comes to mind when you think of undocumented immigrants? Probably not Julissa Arce.

This young woman proves there are no barriers — physical or otherwise — when it comes to achieving your dreams.

When you first meet Julissa Arce, you might assume she's like lots of other ambitious young women just looking for her own slice of humble American pie.

And she is. But she also lived with a huge secret for years.

Image by Julissa Arce, featured with permission.

Julissa was an undocumented immigrant who became a citizen two years ago.

She came to Texas from Taxco, Mexico, when she was 11, in 1994. Her parents got her a tourist visa, but when it expired three years later, she didn't go back to Mexico. Instead, her parents enrolled her in school. As Julissa notes in her book, her parents never addressed the expiration of her visa until it was too late.

Today, Julissa is 33 years old. She became an executive at Goldman Sachs before age 30, which might make her seem like a 100% success story. And she is. But her fight to get to where she is today shows us a lot about living as an illegal immigrant, too.

Her life story will hit home for anyone who says undocumented immigrants are only here to steal U.S. jobs.

(Just tell them to read her new book, "My (Underground) American Dream.")

"There’s so much that hasn’t been told ... and I really need to tell the whole story," she said about writing her book. "I need to tell not just the victories, but also people need to understand the suffering and all the pain that went into getting to where I wanted to get and I couldn’t think of a more timely time to tell the story."

Julissa first realized the severity of her position while in college.

Julissa was a strong student in high school, but she still experienced a roller coaster of emotions when it came to attending college. Because she was an illegal immigrant, it was entirely possible that she wouldn't be able to attend at all.

Then she read about House Bill 1403 and was told to call then Sen. Rick Noriega's office. Her grades earned her a signed letter from the senator to the University of Texas in Austin asking them to consider Julissa's application. She was in.

But it wasn't smooth sailing from there.

She had purchased fraudulent papers with a fake Social Security number because she was so nervous about staying in America without correct documentation. Her parents and younger brother had decided when she was 18 that it made more financial sense for them to go back to Mexico, but because she wanted to go to college, she stayed, alone. How would she pay for her apartment or her tuition or her books? Julissa got a job and got to work. She manned a funnel cake stand, and she worked at a call center, taking any job that would pay the bills.

In her book, Julissa explains her heightened anxiety during college. She couldn't risk presenting any sort of ID at a bar or club, so she rarely went out. Driving meant risking a traffic stop that could potentially lead to deportation because she didn't have a driver's license.

Julissa speaking at The Berkeley Forum. Image by Julissa Arce, featured with permission.

There were also the more obvious sacrifices, like the comfort of family. Julissa couldn't visit her family once they went back to Mexico. She couldn't risk attempting to come back into the U.S. with fake papers. There was too much at stake. That also meant she had to spend holidays (including Christmas) alone.

This is one of my favorite pictures that I share in "My (Underground) American Dream". I dedicated the book to my mom, Luisa, and my dad, Julio. Today marks the 9th anniversary of my dad's passing and not a day does by that I don't wish I had been by his side in his last hours. It hurts just as much as it did on day one. In his honor, in his memory, I share my journey. My biggest wish is that not a single daughter, father, son, mother would have to be separated. The cost of my American Dream was too high. I share some painful moments about my relationship with my dad in the book, but the way I will always remember him is by his smile, his laugh, his jokes, his silliness! He used to call me Juliana. So today call me Juliana.

A photo posted by julissaarce (@julissaarce) on

Julissa's grades in college were stellar, and she also became involved in the Hispanic Business Student Association, serving as president in her final year. Her work ethic and grades were so impressive, she managed to land one of a few coveted internships at Goldman Sachs before her senior year. She left such a positive impression with them that she secured a job as an analyst with the financial firm before graduation.  

She met a guy in Manhattan, and they got married. That's what got the ball rolling on her path to becoming a U.S. citizen. But when it came time to take the oath in August 2014, it was an understandably emotional moment for Julissa.

In her book, Julissa writes that as she looked around the courtroom, she knew every person in there had worked hard for this moment. "America is still the shining beacon of the world. I kept wiping away my tears, simply overwhelmed to think that this day was finally here, and that never again would I have to live in fear of being deported from the country I loved. Never again would anyone be able to question that I was American."

What does this once-undocumented immigrant think about immigration reform?

She thinks we need a path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants who already live in America. But she also points out that much can be done at a state and local level, too. Local governments can give people access to driver's licenses, and they can allow for in-state tuition costs for undocumented students as well.

When it comes to 2016 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Julissa admits she's disappointed that we've given him a platform: "The problem is that whether he wins or loses — the damage has already been done, and we have a lot of work to do to repair the damage that he has done over the last 18 months that he’s been running his campaign."

Julissa's future isn't slowing down either, which excites her.

Her father died nine years ago, in 2007. She was climbing her way to the top at Goldman Sachs at the time. She recalls in her book slipping into a conference room to cry before composing herself and walking back out to face her coworkers.

Now that Julissa is a citizen, she can visit her family in Mexico whenever she wants to. But she also says she's found her true calling — and it's not on Wall Street. She wants to help other people like her looking for a path to citizenship. She has come out the other side of her incredible struggles a successful woman and wants to share the wealth of her knowledge with those who need it the most — undocumented immigrants who want to earn their way into the country.

During one week in October 2016, Julissa was in New Orleans on Monday, hosted a talk at Berkeley on Tuesday, was invited to the White House on Wednesday, and pitched a TV show on Friday. She's currently working on a TV show inspired by her book, too. America Ferrera is producing the series, making the rounds with Julissa in L.A. as they pitch the show.

Julissa with America Ferrera. Image by Julissa Arce, featured with permission.

Julissa says talking about her story is cathartic, but it's also incredibly important for other immigrants.

In fact, she has a simple yet powerful message to all the young, undocumented immigrants living here now: There's always a way.

"You can’t give up and that the road is tough but, at the end of the road, is your goals and your dreams," Julissa said. "You just can’t give up. You’ve gotta be really strong in your convictions and you gotta know that all of your sacrifices are … your dreams are worth your sacrifices."

I can't wait to see what Julissa does next, and as a fellow Latina, I'm thankful for her perseverance in chasing her dream in spite of the unimaginable obstacles, for the way she's reached such impressive heights at such a young age, and — most importantly — for how she is coming forward to share her powerful story to help others obtain their American dream. Every story matters.

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