Personal story by Daria Ershova
I have always dreamed of living in the USA. I guess those movies really did a number on me. I wanted to experience high school, yellow buses, football games, and so much more. At the age of 16 that dream came true, I made a move from Russia to a small rural town in Northern California, about an hour’s drive from Sacramento. It felt surreal: warm air, palm trees, and American flags on every corner. I finished high school, attended community college, and earned a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Advertising.
Both of my parents worked for themselves their whole lives, so this is genuinely how I saw myself growing up. I started picking up jobs here and there from the age of 16. I started vlogging my life in the US on Instagram and TikTok, then picked up internships as a social media manager at a clothing boutique, and then at an upscale restaurant. Senior year of college, I got my first serious internship. I continued working there for a year, until eventually, I got a big girl job in an office.
Priced out of the American dream
Although everything was going well, living in the US was not as beautiful as the movies portrayed it to be. I was getting tired of working 9-5, and the cost of living rose immensely while I was there. My bills amounted to $2000 a month, meaning that I could barely afford to live. Phone bill - $120, car insurance - $200, fuel - $200, groceries - $300, and so on. It was a lot to manage for a young 22-year-old college graduate.
Looking beyond Western Europe
Throughout this all, I kept thinking about Europe. I missed the easy-going behaviour of the locals, daily markets with fresh produce and bakeries. I missed being able to drive 3 hours and end up in a completely different country. An idea began to grow in my mind, why not go back and explore Europe? My only concern was financial. I doubted I would be able to find a job quickly, or for good pay. I spoke to my parents, and realized, wait, why do I need to work for others? Yes, being young is a factor, but I started working at 16 and have a handful of years of experience – I decided that I should just go freelance.
That is when my research phase started. I compiled a list of countries in Europe and the Balkans, where I could open a business and get the benefit of residency. One country caught my eye. Serbia.
The paperwork was easier than expected
Serbia is located in Southeastern Europe, it has a moderate climate, a relatively low cost of living, and a landscape that stopped me mid-scroll. As a foreigner, you can register as a preduzetnik – a self-employed sole trader – and use that to apply for a temporary residence permit of up to three years. This was it, my next destination.
Prior to arriving I researched what documents I needed to open a business and apply for residency. I was thinking of hiring a helper but instead just hired a lawyer that helped me fill out the legal documents. The whole process ended up being easier than I thought. Opening a business took me 2 days. I needed my passport, business address, and a completed application form that we got from the Agencija za Privredne Registre (APR). The APR is Serbia’s Business Registers Agency, the government body that handles all business registrations in the country.
I hired an accountant, and they sent all the necessary documentation to APR. The accountant charged me $250 for a yearly contract. After that task was completed, I started the process of obtaining a visa. The whole timeline, from the moment of sending my application to receiving a physical card, was 1.5 months. I was ecstatic. My nomad chapter had officially begun.
Daily life in Serbia
It has been a little over a year since I made my move, and I have not had a single regret. The thing I love most about Serbia and Serbs is their way of life. They are cheerful, happy people who are always ready to celebrate. Their work-life balance is something I deeply admire and have slowly started adapting for myself. You will find cafes full at noon, with most people taking breaks to go out for coffee and actually talk to each other. Usual shifts end at 4PM, and by 5PM every restaurant, cafe, and park is packed. They love to socialise and forget that work ever happened.
If the USA is all about grind culture, staying late to finish assignments and measuring your worth by your productivity, Serbs measure life in the opposite way - through community and conversations. Now I break my day apart too. Since I work from home, I spend a good part of my mornings in coffee shops, talking to strangers, watching the city move at its own pace. It feels like I am not just working to collect a paycheck. I am also living.
The slower rhythm has done something unexpected for my mental health too. I still work a lot – probably more than I did in the US – but I finally feel like I have found a balance that actually works. The anxiety that used to follow me everywhere has quieted down. I think it is hard to feel urgency all the time when the world around you is not performing urgency.
Local friends have been a big part of that. Serbs are wonderfully social and mine have shown me every hidden gem this country has to offer. Almost every weekend I find myself three hours outside Belgrade, somewhere in the mountains, completely off the grid. Montenegro is just a few hours away – I have made that drive more times than I can count, windows down, no agenda. You simply cannot do that from Arizona.
Reinventing my career abroad
Something else happened when the financial pressure lifted and the pace slowed down. I finally had space to hear myself think, and what I heard was that I wanted to write.
I had always been drawn to storytelling but never had the mental bandwidth to pursue it seriously between the bills, the commute, and the general exhaustion of keeping up with American life. In Belgrade, with rent costs that freed up both money and mental space, I started writing. First for my own Substack, then for publications. A year later I have been quoted in Newsweek, British Vogue, Bustle, and The Everygirl, and I have bylines at entertainment publications covering the stories I actually care about – celebrity culture, books, and film. My PR work funded my life. The slower life funded the writing. I could not have predicted that moving to Serbia would be the thing that finally unlocked my creative career, but here we are.
Would I go back to the US? Maybe one day. But right now, I have farmer market Saturdays, mountain weekends, a Montenegrin coastline a few hours away, and a career that finally feels like mine. The movies that made me fall in love with America never showed me this. I had to find it somewhere else entirely.
About the author
Daria Ershova is a freelance writer and PR consultant who works remotely with clients across Europe and beyond. When she is not crafting strategies or pitching story ideas at odd hours, she is watching something she will probably end up writing about. Her work has appeared in Newsweek, British Vogue, Bustle, and The Everygirl. Fueled by iced caramel lattes and an encyclopedic knowledge of film and TV. Find her at filmoiselle.com or on LinkedIn.
