Coming home

Arriving home after living abroad can be an unsettling experience. Whether you have been away for two weeks or two years, you may experience conflicting emotions--on the one hand you could be excited to see your family and friends but on the other you may feel surprisingly strange, sad, uncomfortable or different. It can be difficult to find words that capture the personal effects your experience and hard for your close friends and family to relate. This is often compounded by the fact that you might not be expecting to feel this way. However this manifests for you, it’s important to remember that during your time away you have changed and the people close to you have changed too. Familiar things may seem different and it may not be easy (or it might feel too easy) to slip back into old routines.

The best advice we can give is to prepare for things to feel different when you return. Learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of reverse culture shock and what strategies you can use to help yourself through it. Taking the time to debrief your experience in formal and non-formal ways can help you process and make sense of your personal learning and growth. Be patient with yourself and use this time to understand how what you do at home can still have an impact overseas. Sharing your experience with your family, friends and wider community is a good way to start.